



r-iiM-' 



HELP 

GOOD 
CHEEK 



THEODORE LCUYLER 



1. ^r^ ~'/->4 






HELP AND GOOD CHEER 



BOOKS BY 

Rev. THEODORE L. CUYLER, D.D., LL.D. 



RECOLLECTIONS OF A LONG LIFE: An 

Autobiography. Crown 8vo, gilt top, illustrated, 
net, $1.50. 

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STIRRING THE EAGLE'S NEST, and Other 
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CHRISTIANITY IN THE HOME. i6mo, cloth, 
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HOW TO BE A PASTOR. i6mo, cloth, gilt top 
(uniform with Dr. Pierson's "Divine Art of Preaching" 
and Dr. Thwing's " Working Church "), 75 cents. 

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HELP AND 
GOOD CHEER 



^ 



Rev. Theodore L/Cuyler, D.D. 

AUTHOR OF 

** Christianity in the Home" '^Recollections 
of a Long Life" Etc., Etc. 



• 3 J J 3 3 3 ,} O J ,, , 

NEW YORK: THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO. 
33-37 East 17TH Street, Union Square North 



r\ 



THE LIBRAITY OF 

COMQRE68, 
Two Comes Reobved 

SEP. 9 1902 

CnpvpwHT emrnv 

CLA89 ^XXe. Hfc 

COFY 8. 






- Copyright, xgoa 

BY 

THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO. 
Published Se^ttmbtr^ 190S 



t * * * * t*' ' 



Nhw York 

Kay Printing House 

66-68 Cbntrk St. 



CONTENTS 

I 

Day-Dawn in the Soul .... i 

II 

The Secret of a Strong Life ... 7 

III 
A Love-Message to the Sorrowing . 13 

IV 
The Angels on the Road .... 22 

V 
Christ Every Day 27 



CONTENTS 



VI 

A Merry Heart Both Meat and 

Medicine 35 

VII 
God's Law of Help in the Family . 42 

VIII 

Why Not Rejoice More? .... 49 

IX 

Growing Old and Keeping Young . 53 

X 

Texts That Have Helped and Com- 
forted Me 61 

XI 

God's Good Guidance ..... 69 
u 



CONTENTS 



XII 
The Rainbow About the Throne . 75 

XIII 

Sweetening the Bitter Things . . 83 

XIV 
Rich Poor People ....... 91 

XV 
God's Kindness to Lame Souls . .96 

XVI 

The Parson's Barrel . . ... 102 

XVII 
The Joys of a Pastor's Life . . .108 

XVIII 

Bright Christians 117 

iii 



CONTENTS 

XIX 

How TO BE Contented 124 

XX 

Jesus Christ the Heart's Guest . 128 

XXI 
Sacred Money 134 

XXII 
Treasures in Heaven 141 

XVIII 
The Great Hymns 149 

XXIV 
Our God as a Rewarder 158 

XXV 

Light at Evening Time .... 163 

iv 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 



THE DAY-DAWN IN THE SOUL 

Morning begins with the swing of the 
earth into the first glimmering rays of light 
from the sun. Spiritual light begins with 
the first approaches of the soul to Jesus 
Christ. All true converts are alike in two 
respects ; they were once in the darkness of 
depravity and unbelief; their day-dawn 
began with the penitent turning of the 
heart to the Saviour. The Holy Spirit 
drew them and they moved Christ ward. 
Conversions have been very numerous 
lately, but no two persons have had exactly 
the same experience. With one person 
the first step was into an inquiry room. 
With another person it was the reopening 
of a long-neglected Bible, or a betaking 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

himself to honest prayer. A third began 
with a resolution of total abstinence from 
the decanter, for Jesus Christ cannot dwell 
in a soul that is drowned in drink. With 
thousands the first step is the banishment 
of some besetting sin; and as the sin went 
out the light broke in. No seeker after 
salvation ever finds peace until he has re- 
nounced his favorite sins, and done it in 
order to obey Christ. Obedience to Jesus 
Christ is the test of conversion. 

Some people are consciously converted 
suddenly. They can fix the hour and the 
place and all the attendant circumstances 
of their new birth. They can point to the 
very arrow of truth that pierced the heart, 
and to the precise sermon, or prayer, or 
conscientious act that brought the healing 
balm. With the majority of Christians I 
feel quite confident that their experience 
in conversion is literally like the daybreak. 
A faint gleam of thoughtfulness grew into 
earnestness, grew into penitence, and en- 
larged into a fuller, deeper sense of the 
soul's need of Christ; then as the soul 



DAYDAWN IN THE SOUL 

came on toward Jesus, the ruddier hues of 
hope appeared, and some flushes of joy 
kindled up; and the soul discovers that 
the night of unbelief has ended and the day- 
dawn has begun. "I have come to the con- 
clusion," said a very intelligent Christian 
lady to her pastor, "that it is best for me 
that I have never yet been able to fix the 
exact time of my conversion; I am afraid 
that I should trust too much to it if 1 could. 
Now I trust to nothing but to continued 
faith and to live in happy fellowship with 
my Saviour." 

Too many new converts are apt to think 
that the dawn is enough, that they have 
reached a certain desired point and need 
only to remain there. As well might our 
globe pause in its diurnal motion when a 
faint streak of morning light is reached, 
instead of rolling on into the perfect day. 
Conversion is not a point of termination; 
it is a point of new departure. It is a start, 
not a journey. No one has a right to say, 
"Now I trust that I am converted ; the work 
is done; I am saved; and I need only join 
3 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

the church and ride on toward heaven." 
This wretched mistake has dwarfed many 
a church member for Hfe. They never out- 
grow their babyhood. Infancy is very 
beautiful in its place; but it must not last 
too long. I am charmed with the bright 
prattle of our little two-year-old grandson, 
who is playing with his toys and "choo-choo 
railroad cars" in yonder nursery; but that 
same lively prattle ten years hence would 
not be so pleasant. "When I was a child, I 
spoke as a child," said the great apostle, 
"but now I have put away childish things." 
The first timid, brief, and rather incoher- 
ent prayer of a new convert in a social 
meeting is very delightful. It is music to 
a pastor's ears, and perhaps to the ears of 
angels likewise. Yet we should not be sat- 
isfied to hear the same prayer from him 
after ten years of sound Christian experi- 
ence. Even Paul, a quarter of a century 
after his new birth into Christ, declares 
that he was still reaching forth unto the 
things that were before, and pressing to- 
ward the gaol. The path of the Christian 
4 



DAYDAWN IN THE SOUL 

is like unto a shining light "that shineth 
more and more unto the perfect day." 

Progress is the law of true piety. The 
"convert" who never grows an inch in grace 
may well doubt whether he was ever really 
converted. And let the genuine convert 
never forget that as the germ of his spiritual 
life came from Christ, so his advance into 
g-odly, useful 'living will depend on his 
drawing closer and closer unto Christ. No 
amount of gaslight or electric burners can 
create a morning in this city; we must 
swing on toward the sun. So it is in the 
nearer approach to and closer conformity 
unto the Divine Saviour that a convert 
advances into a robust Christian. We only 
shine, at best, by reflected light. AD 
brightness and beauty come from our sun 
of Righteousness; the plants of grace 
thrive only under His warmth. My young 
brother or sister, remember that Christ's 
love to you was an orb that beamed and 
burned before you ever beheld it. Christ's 
love turned your darkness into dawn. 
Christ's love to you is the unfailing shaft 
5 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

of light that shall stream into the valley 
of death-shade when you are passing over 
that river that hath no bridge. At evening- 
time it shall be light. 

A rough old fisherman, who stammered 
in his speech, used to pray often in the 
weekly meeting, and one expression was 
always introduced into his homely, fervent 
prayers; **Oh, Lord — lead us — more and 
more — into the love of Jesus — for never 
was love like that." The nearer the old 
fisherman drew toward it the brighter and 
warmer it became; and now he stands — 
with certain other fishermen from Galilee 
— in the noonday glory of his everlasting 
King! 

"Love here is but a faint desire, 
But there the spark's a flaming fire ; 
Joys here are drops that passing flee. 
But there an overflowing sea. 

"Here shadows often cloud my day, 
But there the shadows flee away. 
My Lord will break the dimming glass, 
And show His glory face to face." 



II 

THE SECRET OF A STRONG LIFE 

I CROSSED the ocean on a powerful steam- 
ship, which weighed over twenty thousand 
tons, and pushed her way against wind and 
waves at the rate of over twenty knots an 
hour ! I could not see the propelling force ; 
that was hidden deep down in the glowing 
furnaces, heaped constantly with fresh coal. 

That illustrates the spiritual life of every 
strong, healthy, growing Christian; his 
strength is measured by his inward supply 
of divine grace. The spiritual force and 
progress of a growing Christian prove that 
his life is hid with Christ Jesus. The mov- 
ing hands on the face of my watch are the 
evidence of a mainspring. Happy are you 
if your neighbors who see you every day 
can know by your outward conduct that 
your inner life is fed by an unseen Christ. 
7 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

The great Apostle describes this inner 
life of the true believer as *'with Christ in 
God." The source of this spiritual life is 
divine ; it begins v^ith the new birth by the 
Holy Spirit. By a mysterious but very real 
process the new-born soul's heart-life is so 
united to Christ, so dependent on Christ, 
and so supplied from Christ, that the 
Apostles describes it as "hid with Christ in 
God." 

As the root of an apple tree, concealed 
from the eye, goes down into the soil, feeling 
its way after earth, food and water, and 
drawing up nourishment for every limb and 
leaf, so a truly converted soul learns to go 
down into Christ for his spiritual nourish- 
ment. He learns to find in Christ not only 
pardon and peace, but power to resist temp- 
tation. He learns the sweets of fellowship 
with his Master ; and so close is his intimacy 
with Christ that in times of trouble or per- 
plexity he has only to put the question, 
"1-ord, what wilt thou have me do?'"" A 
genuine and joyous Christian life is such 
an inner partnership with Jesus that the 
8 



SECRET OF A STRONG LIFE 

believer can say, "1 live — yet not I, but 
Christ liveth in me; and the Hfe which I 
now Hve in the flesh I live in faith which is 
in the Son of God, who loved me and gave 
Himself for me." This faith is not a mere 
opinion, nor is it a mere emotion. It is our 
grip on Christ, and His grip on us. Saving 
faith means the junction of our souls to 
Jesus Christ. The mightiest of all spiritual 
forces is the Christ-faith, because it puts the 
omnipotent Lord Jesus into our soul as an 
abiding presence and an almighty power. 
It was no idle boast, therefore, when Paul 
exclaimed : "I can do all things through 
Christ, which strengtheneth me." 

Paul knew whom he believed. In the 
days of my boyhood it used to be said of a 
person who was converted that he had 
"experienced religion." A good phrase 
that; for a religion that is not a genuine 
heart experience is not worth the having. 
The poor weaklings in our churches have 
had but little or nothing of this experience. 
They joined the church more than they 
joined Christ. If they had ever experienced 
9 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

the incoming of Jesus into their hearts, and 
had experienced a new bnth by the Holy 
Spirit, they would not so easily topple over 
into worldlings and money-worshippers and 
moral cowards — too often into disgraceful 
defalcations of character. A steamer with- 
out coal is a helpless waif on the ocean 
billows. Empty bags cannot stand upright. 
It is the terrible experiment of joining a 
church without any heart-union witJi the 
Saviour, of trying to live without honest 
prayer and daily Bible food, of fighting 
Satan with spears of soft pine instead of the 
sword of the Spirit — in short, the experi- 
ment of trying to pass for a Christian with- 
out Jesus Christ — this it is that accounts 
for so many pitiable weaklmgs on our 
church rolls. To stand up against all the 
social currents that set away from God and 
holiness, to resist the craze for wealth at 
all hazards, to conquer ileshly appetites, 
to hold an unruly temper in check, to keep 
down selfishness, to direct all our plans, 
all our talents, all our purposes and in- 
fluence toward the good of others and the 

10 



SECRET OF A STRONG LIFE 

honor of our Master, requires more power 
than any unaided man possesses. It re- 
quires Jesus Christ in the soul. Christ's 
mastery alone can give us self-mastery, 
yes, and mastery over the powers of dark- 
ness and of hell. This is the secret of a 
strong and a joyous life. 

Such a life is self-evidencing. Although 
the interior union of a believer to his 
Redeemer is invisible, yet the results of it 
are patent to the world. They are seen and 
read of all men. Just as we know the sup- 
ply of coal and the power of the unseen 
engine by the steamer's speed, so we can 
estimate the fulness and strength of a man's 
piety by his daily life. Our outward lives 
can never rise above the mward; he who 
has not Christ in his conscience will not 
have Christ in his conduct. In a thousand 
ways does the hidden life with our Master 
come out before the world. It is manifest 
in the man of business who measures his 
goods with a Bible yardstick ; in the states- 
man who would rather lose his election 
than lose God's smile; in the citizen who 
II 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

votes with the eye of his Master on the 
ballot; in the pastor who cares more for 
souls than for salary. The mother displays 
it when she seeks first the kingdom of 
heaven for her children, and the daughter 
exhibits it when she would rather watch by 
a sick mother's bed than enjoy an evening's 
gay festivities. No life is so humble or so 
obscure but it can shine when Christ shines 
through it. If Christ is hidden within you, 
let him not be hidden by you from an ob- 
serving world. You are to be his witness. 
The sermon that no sceptic can answer is 
the sermon of a clean, vigorous, happy and 
fruitful life. 



12 



Ill 



A LOVE-MESSAGE TO THE SOR- 
ROWING 

This world is full of unhappy people; 
and in too many cases this misery is of 
their own making. Nothing tastes good to 
a man whose tongue is coated with a fever ; 
the fault is not with the food, but with the 
disordered body of the invalid; as soon 
as that gets right, oatmeal becomes a 
relished luxury. Discontent is a disease 
of the heart, and is not dependent on exter- 
nal conditions. Paul could sing in a prison, 
and Ahab was wretched in a palace. Some 
of the most miserable people I am ac- 
quainted with are surrounded with external 
prosperities; and some of the most sunny- 
souled friends have not much property ex- 
cept Jesus Christ and a good conscience in 
possession, and heaven in reversion. A 
13 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

change of condition would be of small avail 
to thousands of unhappy people ; what they 
need is a change of heart. The inward 
"Marah" must be sweetened. 

But it is not the wilfully unhappy that I 
have in mind when bringing this love-mes- 
sage, but those whose sorrows are not of 
their own causing — sorrows that come upon 
them by the permissive providence of God. 
If such a word as "chasten" and "afflict" and 
"correct" mean anything in the Bible, they 
certainly mean that our heavenly Father 
does sometimes send troubles upon His own 
beloved children. "As many as I love I 
rebuke and chasten" — "Whom the Lord 
loveth He chasteneth"; these are just as 
plain statements as words can make them. 
The Psalmist faced this tremendous truth 
when he said, "I was dumb, I opened not 
my mouth because Thoit didst it." How 
that fact alters the case! It is a blessed 
discovery we make when we discover God's 
hand in any experience of joy, or any 
experience of sorrow. Further questionings 
will do us no good, for God keeps His own 
14 



A LOVE MESSAGE 



secrets; murmuring and rebellion will only 
aggravate our sorrows. God did it. Hold 
that truth right before your eyes, my suffer- 
ing friend, until you can read it through 
your tears: and you will learn two things. 
First, you will learn that there was a divine 
purpose in your affliction, and there was no 
haphazard blunder in the stroke. Why 
God's dealings with you were wise and kind 
you may not comprehend any more than 
your child comprehends the inner works of 
a clock when it reads the figure "eight" on 
the clock's face and starts off for school. 
The child accepts the fact, and does not go 
behind it. The mysteries of Providence we 
are not able to unravel, and if we attempt it 
the silencing answer comes back, ^'Be still 
and know that I am God !" 

The other thing for you to learn is that 
the God who "did it" is not a blind tyrant, 
but a wise, tender, loving Father. That is 
a precious discovery ; for we can bear almost 
anything if we are sure that love is behind 
it. Love never wrongs us. Love never 
robs us ; never tortures us ; never lays on 
15 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

us a needless load. The wondrous love 
that "spared not His own Son, but delivered 
Him up for us all," can be trusted under 
the heaviest blow or behind the darkest 
cloud. You may say that you are terribly 
puzzled about your Father's dealings with 
you ; but that difficulty arises from the nar- 
row and finite character of our minds. Here 
we only "know in part" — only a fragment 
of God's purposes, and then we go ott" and 
question the whole. We judge God child- 
ishly — finding fault with the woven tapes- 
tries of His providence before they are 
finished in His loom. Remember also that 
you are on the under side, the dark side 
of the overhanging cloud of sorrow. While 
you may be weeping for a departed husband 
or a beloved child, they may be up on the 
heavenly side of that cloud, and be gating 
on its overpowering brightness. Wrestle 
with that puzzle as hard as you will, you 
must be content to know only m part, and 
the rest of it you "will know hereafter." 
If you will borrow his spy-glass from the 
old persecuted hero who wrote the Epistle 
i6 



A LOVE MESSAGE 



to the Romans, you will discover this glo- 
rious signal in the upper sky — ''All things 
work together for good to them that love 
God." See to it that Satan does not sour 
your heart toward your heavenly Father, 
or turn the sweet tenderness of trust into 
the gall of bitter murmurings. 

I am often impressed by the different 
ways in which different persons are affected 
by sorrows. Some seem to have no rallying 
power after a great affliction; the wound 
never heals. On the other hand, trials that 
consume some persons only kindle others 
into greater exertions. ''TJiis financial gale 
has carried away all your spars, and swept 
your decks," I once wrote to an eminent 
Christian merchant after his bankruptcy, 
"but you have got enough grace stowed 
away in your hold to make you rich to all 
eternity." That brave servant of Christ 
repaired damages, resumed business, rallied 
his friends, and **at evening time it was 
light." Smitten down, he was not destroyed. 

The afflictions which are sent of God or 
permitted by Him are never intended for 
17 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

His children's destruction, but for their dis- 
cipHne. The Shepherd casts His tlock into 
deep waters to wash thejii, not to drown 
them. "You will kill that bush if you put 
that knife into it so deep," said a gentleman 
to his gardener. "No, sir; I do this every 
year to keep it from running all to leaves ; 
pruning brings the fruit." Vv'e pastors often 
find God's faithful ones bleeding under the 
knife, but afterward they yield the peaceable 
and precious fruits of righteousness and 
triumphant trust. It is that "afterward" 
that God has in His mind when He sends 
the trial. Affliction is the costly school in 
which great graces are often acquired, and 
from which grand characters are graduated. 
How is it that a genuine Christian 
recuperates after being stricken down by a 
savage adversity or a sharp affliction? 
Simply because his graces survive the shock. 
For one thing, his faith is not destroyed. 
When a ship loses her canvas in a gale, she 
can still be kept out of the trough of the 
sea by her rudder ; when the rudder goes, 
she still has her anchor left, but if the 
i8 



A LOVE MESSAGE 



cable snaps she is swept helplessly on the 
rocks. So when your hold on God is gone, 
all is gone. The most fatal wreck that can 
overtake you in times of sorrow is the 
wreck of faith. But if in the darkest hour 
you can trust God though He slay, and 
firmly believe that He "chastens you for 
your profit," you are anchored to the very 
throne of love, and will come off conqueror. 
Hope also is another grace that survives. 
Some Christians never shine so brightly as 
in the midnight of sorrow. I know of good 
people who are like an ivory dice ; throw it 
whichever way you will, it always lands on a 
square, solid bottom. Their hope always 
strikes on its feet after the hardest fall. 
One might have thought that it was all over 
with Joseph when he was sent to prison, or 
with John when he was exiled to Patmos, or 
with John Bunyan when he was locked up in 
Bedford jail. But they were all put in the 
place where they could be most useful. 

And that reminds me to say that your 
sorrows may be turned to the benefits of 
others. You can relieve your own suffering 
19 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

hearts by turning the flood of grief upon 
some wheel of practical usefulness. An 
eminent minister who was under a peculiar-^ 
ly severe trial said to me: "If I could not 
study and preach and work to the utmost, I 
should go crazy." The millstones grinding 
upon themselves soon wear themselves to 
powder. But active occupation is both a 
tonic and a soothing sedative to a troubled 
spirit. My friend, I entreat you, don't let 
your sorrows stagnate; they will turn your 
soul into a fen of bitter waters, from which 
will sprout the rank rushes of self-will and 
rebellion against God. Turn your sorrows 
outward into currents of sympathy and 
deeds of kindness to others, and they will 
become a stream of blessings. A baptism 
of trial may be your best baptism for 
Christ's service. Worlcing is better than 
weeping; and if you work on till the last 
morning breaks, you will read in that clear 
light the meaning of many of your sorrows. 

Some time, when all life's lessons have been 
learned, 
And sun and stars for evermore have set, 

20 



LOVE MESSAGE 



The things which our weak judgments here have 
spurned, 
The things o'er which we grieved with lashes 
wet, 
Will flash before us, out of life's dark night, 

As stars shine most in deeper tints of blue ; 
And we shall see how all God's plans were right, 
And how what seemed reproof was love most 
true. 

But not to-day. Then be content, poor heart ! 

God's plans like lilies pure and white unfold; 
We must not tear the close-shut leaves apart. 

Time will reveal the calyxes of gold ; 
And if, through patient toil, we reach the land 

Where tired feet, with sandals loosed, may rest, 
Where we shall clearly see and understand, 

I think that we will say, "God knew the best!" 



21 



IV 

THE ANGELS ON THE ROAD 

In the narrative of the patriarch Jacob's 
journey towards Canaan we are told that 
he "went on his way, and the angels of 
God met him." And we may be sure that 
during the journey of this year, we need 
not go out of the every day track of life 
in order to find God's angels. If they come 
to us, they will come in the ordinary path of 
our daily avocations. We need expect no 
miraculous appearances; for our humble 
lives run along a very plain, prosaic level. 
When common folks pray, it is not on a 
Mount Carmel ; when we are hungry, God 
sends to us no ravens; when our faith 
catches glimpses of our Lord, no blazing 
cloud surrounds Him as on the peaks of 
Hermon. Yet as we trudge along the dusty 
road of duty the angels often meet us, even 

22 



ANGELS ON THE ROAD 

though our eyes recognize no visitant with 
the lustre of heaven on his wings. 

Our loving Father has many a method of 
directing our paths. More than one hus- 
band has found his good wife, more than 
one pastor has found the right field of labor, 
more than one young man has chosen the 
right occupation, when an unseen hand was 
guiding them just as truly as an angel 
pointed Philip toward the town of Gaza 
From the hill top of a new year I can look 
back over my own humble pathway and 
recognize turning points and decisive mo- 
ments when my whole life was being shaped. 
No winged messenger met me such as met 
Cornelius, and bade him send for Peter; 
but an invisible divine influence had its hold 
upon my w^ill, ''leading me by a path that I 
knew not." Every Christian may recall 
many and many a time in his history when 
a supernatural power was at work upon 
him, or a sweet mercy met him, or a deliv- 
erance came in an hour of trouble, or a 
sudden joy flashed on the path in which he 
was toiling through the mire, or against a 
23 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

driving wind. We speak of ail such ex- 
periences as "special Providences." But if 
God's angels are sent to "wait on them who 
arc the heirs of salvation," and if they "en- 
camp around them that fear Him," why 
may not angelic agencies have been actmg 
in some mysterious manner upon us? 

Our eyes have beheld no celestial visitant 
as Peter saw one in his prison cell, or as 
Paul saw one in the tempest-tossed vessel. 
Neither do we see cur Lord and Saviour 
with the outward eye. That does not hinder 
our faith, or make His presence with us 
one whit less real. "Lo, I am with you," 
is the promise of a literal fact^ if that be 
not so, our religion is a devout delusion. 
Let us hold fast to the other and kindred 
truth that God employs His angels as "min- 
istering spirits" to the humblest and low- 
liest of His children. If our eyes were 
opened to the supernatural, perhaps we 
might behold them as distinctly as Elisha 
beheld the hosts of chariots and horsemen 
of fire on the mountain side. Very often 
we may be entertaining angels unawares 
24 



ANGELS ON THE ROAD 

when we open our hearts at the call of duty 
or open our door to the poor in the hour 
of their need. Our Lord may have had 
some reference to this great truth when He 
spoke of "their angels always beholding 
the face of His Father in Heaven," and 
also of the angels as attending the pauper 
Lazarus up to the bosom of Abraham. 

The coming year is unknown to us. We 
move, in fact, amid mysteries at every step. 
Unseen things encircle us. If celestial 
spirits attend us and watch us, how care- 
fully we ought to live! If God gives them 
charge concerning us, how cheerfully and 
trustfully we ought to enter upon the 
journey of the opening year! When we 
need them most, they may be at hand. 
Faith has sharp eyes, and endures as seeing 
the invisible. Faith often wears coarse 
clothes and works at very lowly occupa- 
tions — rocking cradles, driving looms, 
sweeping floors, holding ploughs, teaching 
poor children and nursing the bed-ridden 
in garret; faith foots it along a dusty road 
toward heaven; then let her go singing on 
25 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

her way, for the angels of God are keeping 
her company. With a brave, trustful heart, 
good friends, let us grasp the angel's hand ; 
and if we acknowledge God's guidance. He 
will direct our paths aright till we reach 
our Home. 



25 



CHRIST EVERY DAY 

The periodical piety that goes by the 
calendar, and only serves the Lord Jesus 
at set times and places is of very little 
value; it is only a perennial piety that pos- 
esses both peace and power. He is the only 
healthy Christian who runs his Christianity 
through all the routine of his everyday ex- 
periences. Some people keep their religion 
as they do their unbrellas for stormy 
weather, and hope to have it within easy 
reach if a dangerous sickness overtakes 
them. Others, and quite too many, reserve 
their piety for the Sabbath and the sanc- 
tuary, and on Monday they fold it up and 
lay it away with their Sunday clothes. A 
healthy, vigorous, cheerful working relig- 
ion cannot be maintained on Sabbaths and 
songs and sacraments; every day has got 
27 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

to be a "Lord's day," if we expect to make 
any real headway heavenward. I have ob- 
served that those who try to Hve by fits and 
frames and feeHngs are never very fruit- 
ful Christians. 

In setting out for the journey of an open- 
ing year, let us highly resolve to make it 
a better year than any of its predecessors, 
and let us adopt as our brief motto Christ 
every day. Our loving Master emphasizes 
the adverb in that gracious assurance, "Lo ! 
I am with you ahvays/' We think of Him 
as a Redeemer on communion Sundays ; we 
think of Him as a Comforter when some 
terrible affliction befalls us ; why not think 
of Him as a constant Companion? This is 
not a devout fancy, it is a delightful fact. 
And one benefit to us from having the con- 
tinual companionship of Jesus this year, will 
be that every day will be a safe day. We 
need never miss the right road. We need 
never take a morally dangerous step. We 
never need be led astray. Our Divine 
Guide knows the whole pathway from the 
"City of Destruction" to the City of the 
28 



I 



CHRIST EVERY DAY 



great King. Wherever Christ clearly di- 
rects us to walk, there we ought to go. It 
matters not that you and I cannot see the 
end from the beginning. Jesus sees; that 
is enough. He sent Paul on many a peril- 
ous path of duty, and when the boiling deep 
threatened to engulf him, the Master was 
beside him and said, "Fear not, Paul ; thou 
must yet stand before Caesar." The cour- 
age that quailed not in Nero's judgment- 
hall is easily explained by the old hero's 
declaration, "The Lord stood with me, and 
strengthened me." What Christ did for 
Paul, He will do for you. Realize that 
Christ is in the truest and most actual spirit- 
ual sense close by you. Ask His direction ; 
let Him lead you. I don't believe that when 
we put self out of sight, and sincerely de- 
sire to do that, and only that which is for 
the honor of the Master, we ever go mor- 
ally wrong. He that walketh with Jesus 
"walketh surely'' 

My fellow believer, you may walk your 
daily life- journey through all this year in 
the delightful companionship of your Sa- 
29 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

viour if you keep a clear conscience, and a 
praying heart and an obedient temper. 
Begin every morning with a cordial invita- 
tion to Him to grant you His presence. 
Think of Him all the while as close by 
you. The busy bustle of the counting-room 
has not hindered the fellowship with Christ 
of many a godly minded merchant who 
carried his religion into his business and 
dealt by the Golden Rule. I pity the min- 
ister into whose study the Master seldom 
enters. Many a farmer has communed with 
Jesus as he followed his plow until the acres 
had "the smell of a field that the Lord had 
blessed." Hard toiling and often sorely- 
fried sister, don't you suppose that your 
Master knows as well where you live as He 
knew the house of Mary and Martha at 
Bethany? You may have Christ every day 
if you wish. Just as surely as Christ met 
His disciples on that early morn by the 
strand of Galilee will He come to us. Just 
as surely now as then will those who love 
Him most be the quickest to recognize Him 
and the first to hasten to Him. He who 
30 



CHRIST EVERY DAY 



is the living Truth has never broken a 
promise, and He did not utter an idle mock- 
ery when He said, ''Lo ! I am with you 
always." 

There is no journey of life but has its 
clouded days ; and there will probably come 
to many of my readers days in which the 
eyes will be so blinded with tears that it will 
not be easy to see their way, or to spell 
out God's promises. Days that have bright 
sun rises, followed by sudden thunder-claps 
and bursts of unexpected sorrows, are the 
ones that test our graces severely. Yet the 
law of spiritual eye-sight resembles the law 
of physical optics. When we come sud- 
denly out of the daylight into a room even 
moderately darkened, we can discern noth- 
ing; but the pupil of our eye gradually en- 
larges until unseen objects become visible. 
Even so the eye of Faith has the blessed 
faculty of enlargening in the dark hour of 
affliction so that we can discern a hand of 
love behind the cup of sorrow, and the face 
of Jesus beaming out of the gloom. We 
catch the sweet accents, "Let not your heart 
31 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

be troubled ; ye believe in God. believe also 
in Me; I will not leave you comfortless." 
It was in a room of intense bodily suffering 
that one of Christ's veterans said, ''I have 
no bodily strength, yet I am strong. Jesus 
comes to me in the watches of the night 
and draws aside the curtain, and sa.ys, It is 
I, it is I, be not afraid." 

Oh perfect peace ! Oh perfect rest ! 
No care or vain alarms ; 
Beneath our every cross we find 
The Everlasting Arms. 

Christ every day! If that be so, then 
ought His presence not only to give us con- 
stant courage, but shame us from sin, and 
spur us on to duty. There are many things 
that we would blush to do in the presence 
of a child ; how much more under the eye of 
Him who is Infinite Purity. When in the 
hurry of the morning hour, we hasten oJf 
to business without a moment of prayer, 
Jesus witnesses the petty larceny that robs 
us as well as Him. Are we tempted during 
the day to a sharp bargain, or some more 
crooked transaction ? "Business is business." 
32 



CHRIST EVERY DAY 



Yes, but what will Christ say? When we 
utter the irritating word or ill-tempered 
thrust, one look from Him ought to shame 
us into silence. Here is some poor suffer- 
ing creature appealing to our sympathy, and 
selfishness mutters that there is no end to 
such calls of charity. The compassionate 
Jesus who did not count the cost when He 
bought our redemption, says to us, ''Here is 
one of my poor children; give to him for 
My sake." There will not be, all this next 
year, a struggling church that knocks at 
our heart, or a hungry sufferer that knocks 
at our door for relief; there is not a lone 
widow that begs a pittance to warm her 
shivering limbs, or a neglected child run- 
ning in rags and recklessness to ruin, but 
ever the same voice whispers to us, 'Tn as 
much as ye do it unto one of the least of 
these, ye do it unto Me." That spotless, 
loving Jesus is by us every hour. Then how 
dare we play the coward, the sensualist, the 
cheat, or the wrong-doer to our fellow-man ? 
A new year is upon us with new duties, 
new conflicts, new trials and new oppor- 
33 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

tunities. Start on the journey with Jesus — 
to walk with Him, to work for Him, and to 
win souls to Him. A happy year will it be 
to those who through every path of trial, or 
up ever hill of difficulty or over every sunny 
height, march on in closest fellowship with 
the Master, and who determine that come 
what may, they will have Christ every day. 



34 



VI 

MERRY HEART BOTH MEAT AND 

MEDICINE 

"A MERRY heart doeth good like medi- 
cine." In the Revised Version it reads: 
"A merry heart is a good medicine." In 
a previous verse of this Book of Divine 
Proverbs, we read that ''He that is of merry 
heart hath a continual feast." So that the 
same thing is recommended to us both as 
meat and medicine. 

The word "merry" here is not the syn- 
onym of reckless jollity; it is not the mere 
effervescence of animal spirits, or the pro- 
duct of sensual stimulants. It is the same 
word which Paul used when he told his 
temptest-tossed shipmates in the Adriatic to 
"Be of good cheer." There is a broad dif- 
ference in the Bible between joy and jollity ; 
the one often comes from above, and the 
other quite too often from beneath. The 
25 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

cheerfulness which God's Word commends 
is not dependent on outward conditions or 
circumstances; for some of the most mis- 
erable people in our land may be eating 
their sumptuous dinner to-day off silver and 
porcelain in splendid mansions. It is not 
where we are, but what we are that deter- 
mines our real happiness. Christian cheer- 
fulness is that sunshiny, happy frame of 
mind which comes from health of heart; it 
is the invariable symptom of heart-health. 

Such a temper of mind has a most potent 
influence upon the bodily health. Many a 
lean dyspeptic who has no appetite for his 
food, and no refreshing rest in his sleep, is 
simply dying of worry and peevishness. 
The acrid humors of the mind have struck 
through and diseased the digestive organs. 
The medicine he needs is not from the phy- 
sician or the pharmacy. A good dose of 
Divine grace, with a few grains of gratitude 
for God's mercies, and a frequent bracing 
walk of benevolence in helping other people, 
will do more to quicken his appetite and put 
healthy blood into his weazened frame than 
36 



A MERRY HEART 



all the drugs of the apothecary. Not only 
is a merry heart a wonderful tonic to the 
body ; it is a clarifier and invigorator of the 
mind. The mental machinery will work 
longer and far more smoothly when the oil 
of cheerfulness lubricates the wheels. 

It is worthy of note that many of the 
giants in the Christian Church have been 
men of exuberant cheerfulness. Stout old 
Martin Luther had in him a huge capacity 
for laughter ; he came home from his stormy 
public conflicts to make merry with his 
household around his Christmas tree, and to 
enjoy music and song with his wife Kath- 
erina. Lyman Beecher was as indigenous 
an American product as the hickory or the 
buckeye tree; like Abraham Lincoln he 
tasted of the soil. His heart-health was of 
the most robust character. With work 
enough for five men on his shoulders, he 
was ready to go off and spend a whole day 
with his boys gathering chestnuts — filling 
the forest with his laughter and glee. At 
the close of some of his most powerful re- 
vival services he came home to prepare for 
2^7 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

a wholesome night's slumber by a romp 
with his children, or a few lively airs on his 
violin. The same sunny-hearted cheerful- 
ness has been the characteristic of Spurgeon, 
and Phillips Brooks and Newman Hall, and 
Guthrie, and many other masters in Israel 
— the swing of whose minds, like the swing 
of a great wave at sea, threw off jets from 
its foaming crest. 

Let me ask the men of business who read 
these lines, "how many of you manage to 
lubricate the wearing machinery of life with 
this oil of cheerful spirit? How many of 
you come home from the exacting care and 
tear of your daily calling to make your 
fireside bright and your household happy? 
I fear that we who profess a religion of joy 
and hope are too often so chafed by the 
frictions, or worried by the cares of life, 
that we bring but little of the "merry heart" 
into our homes. I have known some speci- 
mens of piety that shone in the prayer- 
meeting, but smoked sadly at the firesidCi 
If you Christian fathers and mothers do not 
make your homes attractive, and winsome, 



A MERRY HEART 



and cheerful, your children will seek other 
places of attraction that may be by-roads to 
perdition ! A lively dinner once in a twelve- 
month is all very well ; but far better is the 
cheerful heart that is a "continual feast" all 
the year round. How shall this temper of 
mind that is both meat and medicine, be 
secured and maintained ? A few simple pre- 
scriptions may not be amiss. In the first 
place, look at your mercies with both eyes, 
but at your trouble with only one eye. Look 
at your mercies and your privileges often, 
and at troubles when you cannot help it. 
If adversities press heavily, draw all the 
honey you can out of the hard rock, and 
oil out of the flinty rock. Saadi, the Per- 
sian poet, tells us that he never complained 
of povery but once, and that was when he 
had no money to buy shoes ; but meeting a 
man who had no feet, he became contented 
to go barefooted. If a heathen could keep 
cheerful by his philosophy, why should a 
Christian believer ever complain who is the 
heir through Christ to a magnificent eter- 
nal inheritance? 

39 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

Strive to reach Paul's secret: *'In what- 
soever state I am, I will be content." In 
these days of extravagance keep down the 
accursed spirit of grasping. By all means 
live within your means. You do not 
need all the coal to heat your little oven. 
Most of my readers may have as large pos- 
sessions now as they can give good account 
of at the Day of Judgment. Godliness 
with contentment is great wealth. A mil- 
lionaire once said to me, "I never got any 
real happiness out of my money until I 
began to do good with it." Be useful if you 
want to be cheerful. Always be lighting 
somebody's torch, and that will shed its 
lightness on your own pathway, too. 

Finally, make a loving God your trustee, 
and commit your soul to his keeping. Take 
short views. If you have enough to meet 
your legitimate wants, and something over 
for Christ's treasury, don't torment your- 
self with the fear that your cruse of oil will 
give out. If your children cluster around 
your board to-day, enjoy the music of their 
voices without racking your hearts with the 
40 



A MERRY HEART 



dread that one may be carried off by the 
scarlet fever, or another may come to dis- 
aster. Faitli carries present loads, meets 
present dangers, feeds on present promises, 
and commits the future to a loving Heaven- 
ly Father. Again I say, take short views. 
Do not attempt to climb the high wall till 
you get to it — or fight the battle till it opens 
— or shed tears over sorrow that may never 
come. Be careful lest you lose the joys 
that you have by the sinful fear that God 
may have trials awaiting you. He prom- 
ises graces sufficient for to-day — but not 
one ounce of strength for to-morrow. You 
cannot create the morning star ; but you can 
put your soul where Jesus Christ is shin- 
ing. Each Sabbath is a fitting time to in- 
ventory your mercies and blessings. Set 
all your family to the pitch of the 103d 
Psalm; and hang on the wall over your 
dinner these mottoes : "A merry heart is a 
good medicine" and "He that is of a cheer- 
ful heart hath a continual feast." 



41 



VII 

GOD'S LAW OF HELP IN THE 
FAMILY 

Once upon a time two Apostles — Peter 
and John — went up to the temple at the 
hour of prayer, and seeing a lame beggar 
at the "Beautiful Gate" they healed him on 
the spot. The poor cripple gets a happy 
restoration; the two Apostles get the ears 
of the people; and the people, in turn, get 
the Gospel message which Christ's ambas- 
sadors proclaim to them. Peter helps the 
lame beggar; the restored beggar helps 
Peter in his Gospel work ; both help the 
assembled multitudes. This illustrates 
God's appointed law of mutual helpfulness. 

One of the designs of our Creator in "set- 
ting the solitary in families" is that this 
law of mutual help might be put into prac- 
tice. "None of us liveth to himself" might 
42 



GOD'S LAW OF HELP 

be written on the lintel of every household. 
At the very outset of our existence, in 
earliest infancy parental love becomes a real 
though imperfect miniature of the Divine 
Providence. The sweet, sacred name 
''mother" means life, food, medicine, pro- 
tection and about all things else to the de- 
pendent child. In good, patient mother's 
arms the little mendicant finds its "Gate 
Beautiful." There is its garner of food, 
there its soft couch of repose, there its 
store of cordials for hours of pain, there 
its playground of infant glee, there its har- 
bor of refuge and stronghold of safety. 
God typifies his own tenderness when he 
says, "as one w^hom his mother comforteth, 
so will I comfort you." 

Does the receiver of all these parental 
bounties yield nothing in return? Getting 
so much, does the little cherub (for the 
most homely child is a cherub to the 
mother's eye) give nothing in return? Tell 
me, ye who have held a budding immortal- 
ity next to your throbbing bosom, has that 
little nursling nursed no deep and holy 
43 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

thoughts, no sweet ecstasies, and no un- 
utterable emotions in your own heart? 
Thou lonely and meek-eyed mother, when 
through the long weary hours of absence 
from him who was at his daily toil, or out 
upon the rocking deep, you grew sad and 
timid and lonesome, tell me, if you can, 
what a wealth of companionship you found 
in two little bright eyes and the music of 
a merry tongue. How brave you grew 
when you remembered that you were the 
guardian angel of that God-given treasure ! 
When you began to teach the earliest les- 
sons to your darling, did you not find that 
your child was educating you as rapidly as 
you were educating it? Have you learned 
no lesson of patience as you bent over the 
crib w^here pain was moaning at the mid- 
night hour? Have you been taught no 
self-control when you saw passionate tem- 
per rising in that young breast, and no les- 
son of unselfish love when you were ready 
to sacrifice time and ease and rest and 
strength for that darling's welfare? Ah, 
there are some mothers who read these lines 
44 



GOD'S LAW OF HELP 

that have learned what God could nowhere 
else have taught you, when you swallowed 
down your tears over that little coffin and 
hung (as in a strange dream) over that 
deep, deep grave that seemed to reach down 
into eternity. 

Thank God for children, living or dead, 
here or in Heaven! A childless home is 
like a leafless, blossomless tree ; the summer 
winds make scant music through the boughs, 
and the summer sun ripens no fruit on the 
branches. A cradle is often a ''Gate Beau- 
tiful" in life where the soul receives some 
of the most precious gifts of healing; a 
gate through which the heart often finds its 
way up to the throne of God and out into 
the mysteries of the eternal world. Most 
profitable instructors may our children be 
to us in many ways. Believe it, O parents, 
that when God sets a child in the midst of 
us he puts a looking-glass there to see our- 
selves in. Our faults or our vices are often 
made to glare back terribly from the coun- 
tenance and the conduct of those who sin 
our sins over again. Sharp schooling that, 
45 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

where the parent becomes the pupil ! On 
the other hand, when I have seen a truly 
Christian pair looking with grateful joy on 
the child of their love as he came home 
w^ith his prize from school, or as he stood 
up before the church to confess Jesus Christ 
in the fresh beaut}' of a youthful self-con- 
secration, then I saw the mirror of child- 
hood giving back the beautiful reflection of 
parental piety and grace. The early death 
of children has often been turned to a glor- 
ious gain by the conversion of their par- 
ents ; no trial is so often made a sanctified 
trial as that. The hand of a departed dar- 
ling has led father or mother, or both of 
them, Christward. 

It is not only in the relation of parentage 
and childhood, but also in every other rela- 
tion, that the family is a school of mutual 
help. Each member depends on ever\- 
other. To-day the robust father holds the 
"wee laddie" on his knee, or leads him up 
the stairway of that schoolroom in which he 
is to be taught his alphabet. There is a to- 
morrow coming by and by when the lisper 
46 



GOD'S LAW OF HELP 

of the A, B. C will be the master of a home 
of his cwn, with an infimi, gray-haired 
parent dozing away his sunset years in an 
armchair. AMiat a constant benediction is 
a sunny- faced grandmother in many a 
house! Her chair is the next most sacred 
thing to the family altar. God intends that 
parents and their offsprings shall never is- 
sue a "declaration of independence.'' Each 
is to help the other when and where help 
is most needed; and every word and deed 
of unselfish love comes back in fifty-fold 
blessings on its author. 

A brave girl of my acquaintance is toil- 
ing hard not only for self-support but to 
educate a little brother ; and I know a noble 
eldest son who is carrying all his little or- 
phan brothers and sisters on his sturdy back. 
The sick members of the household have 
their useful ministries also. In many a 
home there is a room whose silent influence 
is felt all over the dwelling. The other 
members of the family come in there to 
inquire after the sick sufferer, to bring fresh 
flowers or choice fruit, to read aloud to her, 
47 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

or to watch with her through the lonesome 
night. That room is the ''Gate Beautiful" 
of the house; from it steals forth an influ- 
ence that makes every one gentler and ten- 
derer and more unselfish. 

The home is God's primal training-school. 
He puts there feeble babes, and sweet in- 
valid daughters, and crippled boys, and in- 
firm grandparents, for this purpose, among 
others, that the strong may bear the burdens 
of the weak, and in bearing them may grow 
stronger themselves in Bible graces. In- 
valids and children have their uses to help 
the well-grown and the vigorous as well as 
to be helped by them. In every Christian 
family the scene at the Beautiful Gate of 
Jerusalem's temple is repeated over and 
over again when the wise and the strong 
take the weaker by the hand and say, ''Rise 
up; I will help you walk." Underneath 
the foundations of the commonwealth is the 
family, and the oldest of all Churches is the 
''Church of the house." Of that Church the 
parent is the pastor. 



VIII 

WHY NOT REJOICE MORE? 

Every child of God may well rejoice be- 
cause he has such a Father in Heaven. 
*'I have set the Lord always before me; 
therefore my heart is glad, and my glory 
rejoiceth." In his presence is fulness of 
joy. This refers to the experiences of the 
present life, and then up at his right hand 
will be the "pleasures forever more." It 
is a bad heart that skulks away from a lov- 
ing Father in sullen distrust and dread. 
Then, too, what joy is kindled in our souls 
when we are brought into full reconciliation 
with God through the atoning love and 
meditation of Jesus Christ ! The returning 
prodigal's heart thrills under every kiss of 
his forgiving Father. 

"Earth has a joy unknown in heaven, 
The new-born peace of sins forgiven. 
Tears of such pure and deep delight, 
Ye angels, never dimmed your sight." 

49 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

The assurance of a full salvation is 
enough to keep our hearts aglow. **I give 
unto you eternal life," says our omnipotent 
Saviour, "ye shall never perish, neither shall 
any man pluck you out of my hand." All 
things work together for good if we love 
God. Even sharp pruning may make us 
yield richer clusters of spiritual fruit, if 
we will let God have his way. And when 
the discipline and conflicts of this earthly 
school-life are ended, we look upward, and 
see that "our names are written in Heaven." 

All these joys our loving God provides 
for us, and offers them to us. We cannot 
create canary birds ; but we can provide 
cages for them, and fill our rooms with their 
music. Even so we cannot create the rich 
gifts which Jesus offers ; but they are ours 
if we furnish heart-room for them. The 
birds of peace and contentment and joy and 
gratitude will fly in fast enough, if we will 
only invite Jesus Christ and set the windows 
of our souls open for his coming. Every 
time that we perform a kind Christ-like ser- 
vice to the poor, the neglected, or the 
50 



WHY NOT REJOICE MORE? 

wronged, another canary bird flies into our 
window. The blessedness of giving is re- 
turned with compound interest. 

Now with all these pure and substantial 
joys within our reach, it is a sin and shame 
for a genuine Christian to be wretched. Is 
not disobedience to God a sin? He com- 
mands to rejoice. No duty is more clear. 
"Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I 
say rejoice! The joy of the Lord is your 
strength." You can fill your soul with 
inspiring thoughts, and with memories of 
mercies; you can occupy your soul with 
plans of doing good to others and with acts 
of obedience to the inward voice of Christ, 
such as will kindle your soul into a glow. 
A noble woman of my acquaintance makes 
rainbows on the cloud of her widowhood 
by ministrations of mercy to the poor and 
the destitute. There is a "godly sorrow" 
over our shortcomings, and over our woes 
and wrongs of others that every Christian 
ought to feel ; but such sorrow must never 
be allowed to drown out the deep abounding 
joy of the Lord down in the very core of 
51 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

our souls. There is a gulf-stream of God- 
given joy that ought to send its warm cur- 
rent through the wintriest waves of trials 
and adversities. ' 

All the coal-beds in Pennsylvania and 
Ohio are only solidified sunshine. The love 
of Jesus streaming down into your soul 
makes the central heat ; that heat generates 
spiritual power. So doth the joy of Jesus 
become your perennial strength. A doubt- 
ing ague-smitten Christian cannot do much 
but shake. A back-sliding Christian is on 
his road to a cell in the castle of Giant De- 
spair. But "he who is nearest to Christ is 
nearest to the fire," and the contact keeps 
the heart aglow. Why not rejoice more? 
Count up your golden mercies, count up 
your exceeding great and precious promises, 
count up your joys of heirship to an incor- 
ruptible inheritance, and then march on the 
road heavenward shouting. 



52 



IX 

GROWING OLD AND KEEPING 
YOUNG 

Since the time when Cicero wrote his 
immortal treatise on Old Age, innumerable 
screeds have been written on this venerable 
topic; but as it is an experimental matter, 
there is always room for another one's ex- 
perience. 

Some people regard old age as a disgrace 
and practice cunning devices to conceal it. 
Their wigs and other pretences wear out 
and expose their folly; for Solomon de- 
clares that a hoary head is a crown of 
glory, if it be found in the way of right- 
eousness. 

That old age is an incurable malady is 
only partially true, for some vigorous per- 
sons pass fourscore years without ever hav- 
ing caught it ; or they have it so lightly that 
S3 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

nobody suspects them. "Old" is a relative 
term after all. I have known people who 
were rather pitiably old at fifty ; and when I 
met that swift-footed Christian, William E. 
Dodge (senior), at the age of seventy-five, 
with the brisk gait of a boy, and with 
scarcely a gray hair on his head, I said to 
him, "You are one of the youngest men in 
New York." 

How to keep young — that is the problem ; 
and it is a vitally important problem, for it 
really means, how to make the most of life, 
and to bring the largest revenue of service 
for the Master. 

Healthy heredity counts for a great deal. 
Longevity runs in certain clean-lived fami- 
lies. For example that stalwart philanthro- 
pist, Neal Dow, alert at ninety-two, told me 
that his Quaker father reached ninety-four, 
his grandfather eigthy-five, and his great- 
grandfather ninety. Such inherited vigor 
is a capital to start with, and not to be 
wasted. On the other hand, one of the 
most atrocious crimes is that committed 
by some parents, who not only shorten their 
54 



KEEPING YOUNG 



own days, but make long life an impossi- 
bility to their offsprings. 

Supposing that a man has a fairly good 
and unmortgaged constitution to start with, 
there are several practices and methods to 
ward off the infirmities of a premature old 
age. 

The first and most important is — to keep 
the commandmeyits. Our Creator has writ- 
ten certain laws on our mortal bodies — laws 
as irrepealable as those written on the stone 
tables of Sinai ; laws for the breach of which 
Jesus Christ has made no atonement. To 
squander vital resources by violating these 
laws, or even by neglecting them, is an un- 
pardonable sin. 

There are suicides in Christian churches 
— yes, in some Christian pulpits ! Rigid 
care as to a digestible diet does not mean 
fussiness. It means a clear head, clean 
blood, and a chance of longevity. Stimu- 
lants are dangerous just in proportion as 
they become indispensable. Hard brain- 
work, hearty eating, and no physical exercise 
are the short road to a minister's grave, 
55 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

That famous patriarch of the New England 
pulpit, Dr. Nathaniel Emmons, who was 
vigorous at ninety-five, used to say, 'T al- 
ways get up from the table a little hungry." 
the all-comprehensive rule of diet is very 
simple — whatever harms more than it helps, 
let alone. Wilful dyspepsia is an abomina- 
tion to the Lord. 

A second essential to a healthy longevity 
is the repair of our resources by sound and 
sufficient sleep. Insomnia is worse than 
any of the plagues of Egypt ; it kills a man 
or woman by inches. How much sleep is 
absolutely necessary to bodily vigor must be 
left to Nature ! she will tell you if you don't 
fool with her. ''Burning the midnight oil" 
commonly means burning up life before 
your time. Morning is the time for work; 
one hour before noon is worth five after 
sunset. 

When a man has as much strain on 
his brain and on his nervous sensibilities as 
most ministers have goes to his bedroom, he 
should school himself to the habit of dis- 
missing all thought about outside matters. 
56 



KEEPING YOUNG 



If he has difficulty in doing this, he should 
pray for divine help to do it. This sugges- 
tion is as applicable to hard-worked business 
men and to care-laden wives and house- 
keepers as it is to ministers or brain-workers 
in any profession. 

That wonderful physical and mental phe- 
nomenon of this century, Mr. Gladstone, 
once told me that he had made it a rule to 
lock every affair of State and every other 
care outside of his bedroom door. To this 
excellent habit he attributed his sound sleep, 
and to his refreshing sleep he largely attri- 
buted his vigorous longevity. Paddy's rule 
is a good one — ''When you slay, pay attin- 
tion to it." Personally, I may remark that 
it is to a full quota of slumber at night 
and a brief nap after a noon meal that I owe 
fifty-six years of steady work without a 
single Sunday on a sick-bed. 

To keep young, every man or woman 
should endeavor to graduate their labors 
according to their age. After threescore 
and ten lighten up the loads. It is over- 
work that wears out life; just as it is the 
57 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

driving of a horse after he is tired that hurts 
him and shortens his days. But while ex- 
cess of labor is injurious to the old, an 
entire cessation from all labor is still worse. 
A workless life is commonly a worthless life. 
If a minister lays off the burdens of the 
pastorate, let him keep the tools sharp by a 
ministry-at-large with pen and tongue. 
When a merchant or tradesman retires from 
business for himself, let him serve the pub- 
lic, or aid Christ's cause by enlisting in en- 
terprises of philanthropy. 

Rust has been the ruin of many a bright 
intellect. The celebrated Dr. Archibald 
Alexander, of the Princeton Theological 
Seminary, kept young by doing a certain 
amount of intellectual work every day so 
that he should not lose his touch. He was as 
full of sap on the day before his death as he 
•was when a missionary in Virginia at the 
age of two-and- twenty. He prepared and 
often used a prayer that was so beautiful 
that I quote a portion of it for my fellow 
disciples whose life-clock has struck three- 
score and ten : 

58 



KEEPING YOUNG 



"O most merciful God, cast me not off in 
the time of old age; forsake me not if my 
strength faileth. May my hoary head be 
found in righteousness. Preserve my mind 
from dotage and imbecility, and my body 
from protracted disease and excruciating 
pain. Deliver me from despondency in my 
declining years, and enable me to bear with 
patience whatever may be Thy holy will. I 
humbly ask that my reason may be continued 
to the last ; and that I may be so comforted 
and supported that I may leave my testi- 
mony in favor of the reality of religion and 
of Thy faithfulness in fulfilling Thy gra- 
cious promises. And when my spirit leaves 
this clay tenement, Lord Jesus, receive it! 
Send some of the blessed angels to convoy 
my inexperienced soul to the mansions 
which Thy love has prepared ; and O, may I 
have an abundant entrance ministered unto 
me into the Kingdom of our Lord and Sa- 
viour Jesus Christ." 

This beautiful petition flooded his closing 
years with sweet peace and a strength un- 
broken to the last. 

59 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

A sore temptation to the aged is a ten- 
dency to queruloitsness and pessimism. 
Losses are unduly lamented, and gains are 
not duly recognized. While we cherish and 
cling to many of the things that are old, and 
are all the better for having been tested, let 
us not seek to put our eyes in the back of 
our heads and live only in the past. Keep 
step with the times; keep sympathy with 
young hearts ; keep in touch with every new- 
born enterprise of charity, and in line with 
the marchings of God's providence. A ten 
minutes of chat or play with a grandchild 
may freshen you more than an hour spent 
with an old companion or over an old book. 

Above all, keep your hearts in the love of 
God, and walk in the warm sunshine of 
Christ's countenance. Our "Indian Sum- 
mer" ought to be about the most golden 
period of a life consecrated to Him who 
bought us with His precious blood. 

Eye hath not seen, tongue hath not told, 

And ear hath not heard it sung, 
How buoyant and fresh — though it seems to gro\v 
old- 
Is a heart for ever young. 
60 



TEXTS THAT HAVE HELPED AND 
COMFORTED ME 

Coleridge's remark that "the Bible is the 
only book that always finds me," has been 
abundantly verified in the experiences of 
myriads of Christians. Other cisterns of 
thought run dry; this divine fountain of 
all truth is inexhaustible. For every mood 
of mind, for every perplexity, every emer- 
gency, and every trial there is a precious 
message for us. My dear old mother's Bible 
had its margins lined with pencil marks 
against her favorite and well-tested texts. 

There is one text that has helped me 
wonderfully ; it is that not unfamiliar one in 
the fifty-fifth Psalm ; "Cast thy burden upon 
the Lord." The Hebrew word translated 
"burden" signifies that which is given to us 
to bear. The Psalmist means to say that 
6i 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

whatever Providence appoints to us, we 
must lay it upon the Lord. He has cast 
thy lot for thee ; then cast thy lot upon Him. 
It may seem at first sight as if there was a 
contradiction between this text and that 
other one, "Every man shall bear his own 
burden." But there is no contradiction at 
all. We have our duties to perform, some- 
times very difficult duties; God does not 
release us from them, but He sustains us in 
doing them. The load laid upon us does 
not crush us, for He gives us strength equal 
to our day; we lay the load upon the 
strength which our loving Father imparts to 
us. God's wonderfully gracious offer to us 
in this text is to lighten our burdens by put- 
ting Himself, as it were, into our souls and 
underneath the burdens. This is a super- 
natural process ; and the whole walk of faith 
through life is the simple but sublime re- 
liance upon the almighty arm that is never 
seen but often felt. 

This is a world of worries, and all around 
us are overloaded people; each one thinks 
his or her burden is the biggest. In the 
62 



TEXTS THAT HAVE HELPED ME 

meantime our merciful Father keeps saying 
to every one of them, ''Cast thy burden upon 
the Lord, and He shall sutain thee." As if 
this one offer were not enough it is repeated 
again in the New Testament : ''Cast all your 
anxieties upon Him, for He careth for you." 
This is the more accurate rendering in the 
Revised Version; for the word translated 
"care" in our Common Version does not 
signify wise forethought but that wretched 
thing worry. This text has been delight- 
fully helpful to me because I have a natural 
tendency to anxieties, and the reason given 
for rolling them over upon God is very ten- 
der and very touching. "He careth for 
you." He takes a deep interest in you. He 
has you on His infinitely loving heart. He 
is the One who says to me, "My child, don't 
break yourself down with that burden." 
The infinite Ruler of the Universe, who is 
Avise in counsel and wonderful in working — 
the God who guarded the infant Moses in 
his cradle of rushes ; who sent His messen- 
ger-birds to Elijah by the brook Cherith; 
who quieted Daniel among the ravenous 
63 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

lions, and calmed Paul in the raging temp- 
ests — He it is who says to us, Roll your 
anxieties over on me, for I have you on my 
loving heart ! What fools we often are, when 
we trudge along with bended backs and 
weary, careworn hearts; and all the while 
God's omnipotent arm is stretched out to re- 
lieve us. 

These twin-texts I have just quoted have 
more than once exorcised that demon of 
''worry," and made me move nimbly over 
the path of duty. Sometimes in a season 
of great perplexity a passage of Scripture 
has suddenly darted its light upon me, and 
made the pathway very clear to my eyes. A 
remarkable illustration of this occurred to 
me during my ministry in New York. My 
field of labor was a very difficult one, and 
a very attractive call was put into my hands 
from a prominent, wealthy, and prosperous 
church in Chicago. The invitation from 
that church was pressed upon me for several 
months most persistently. I became sorely 
perplexed and sought divine guidance. One 
day I opened that richly suggestive book, 
64 



TEXTS THAT HAVE HELPED ME 

"Cecil's Remains," and my eye rested on a 
passage in which Richard Cecil remarks that 
changes in life are often dangerous, especi- 
ally if they appeal to selfish ambition. Then 
followed this text from the prophet Jere- 
miah, "Why gaddest thou about to change 
thy way ?" I had never noticed this peculiar 
passage before, and it decided me in an in- 
stant. Never have I ceased to thank God 
for that little text; but for it I might have 
missed a distinct call from God to come — 
soon afterwards — to this city of Brooklyn, 
in which I have been permitted to do the 
most important work of my life. 

We ministers are constantly required to 
administer consolations to afflicted souls, and 
we are often in sore need of heaven-sent 
comfort ourselves. Once when God had 
smitten the four corners of my house by the 
death of a beautiful and beloved daughter, 
the following text came to me like a dove of 
peace flying into my window: "And now 
men see not the bright light which is in the 
clouds ; but the wind passeth and cleanseth 
(or cleareth) them." A very dark cloud of 
65 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

bereavement was overhanging me. I needed 
some revealing wind to clear away the dark 
and dreadful mystery of that affliction and 
let some ray of light into my troubled heart. 
One of the truths that beamed in upon me 
was that there is a great want in all of 
Chrits's ministers who have had no personal 
education in the bearing of sharp trials. I 
saw that I needed some lessons that could 
only be learned through tears, just as Paul 
needed a thorn in the flesh, and Joseph 
needed to be shut up in a prison in order that 
he might reach a palace and a premiership 
in the kingdom of Egypt. I needed to be 
taught for myself that dark clouds often rain 
down precious blessings ; that Christ's peo- 
ple are never so exalted as when they are 
brought low, never so enriched as when they 
are emptied, never so advanced as when they 
are set back by adversities, and never nearer 
a crown than when they are under a cross. 

If affliction drives us from God it becomes 

a curse; if it sends us closer to Him it 

becomes a priceless blessing. Through the 

parted clouds of sorrow, O, how many 

66 



TEXTS THAT HAVE HELPED ME 

angels of mercy descended upon me! One 
of them said to me, ''Whom I love I chas- 
ten." Another angel said, ''All things work 
together for good to them that love God." 
Another said, "Let not your heart be 
troubled ; believe also in me." Still another 
angel voice whispered, "This affliction, 
which is but for a moment, shall work out 
a far more exceeding and eternal weight of 
glory," And so, as my vision was cleansed 
with tears I began to see the bright light 
breaking through the clouds ; and that text 
has been fraught with precious comfort to 
me ever since. 

I might quote many other passages that 
have rendered infinite help and consolation ; 
but I close with an incident that happened 
in my own household very recently. A few 
weeks ago a beloved member of my family 
was compelled to undergo a very severe and 
critical surgical operation in order to save 
her life. On the morning of the day that the 
surgeon was to operate, she opened her little 
book of "Daily Light," and the text for that 
day at the top of the page was this : "Thou 
67 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

shalt be steadfast, and shalt not fear; be- 
cause thou shalt forget thy misery and re- 
member it only as waters that pass away." 
Those words came like a voice from heaven ; 
and they were as cheering as they have since 
proved to be prophetic. Truly God's book is 
a wonderful treasure-house of truth for 
every step in our pathway of life and every 
emergency that we encounter. Happy is he 
who makes it a lamp unto his feet, and 
the song in the house of his pilgrimage. 



(SB 



XI 

GOD'S GOOD GUIDANCE 

Luck is a word that ought to be banished 
from a Christian's vocabulary ; for Hfe is not 
a lottery and this world is not governed by 
chance. Our Heavenly Father's precious 
promise is, "I will teach thee in the way 
which thou shalt go ; I will guide thee with 
mine eye upon thee." When the children of 
Israel were making their long march from 
Egypt to Canaan a miraculous pillar of 
cloud overhung their camp. In the morn- 
ing, when Israel was to move onward the 
cloud gathered itself into the upright col- 
umn, and pioneered the way in which Moses 
was to march. All that the Israelites had 
to do was to watch the cloud. 

We may sometimes envy those pilgrims 
of the desert who were only obliged to look 
out of their tents in order to learn whether 
69 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

they were to remain quiet or go ahead ; and 
if they were to move they knew just whither 
to bend their steps. But our God, if we ask 
him, will be as truly with us in our life- 
journey as he was with the children of 
Israel. He will be our guide even unto 
death. We have his infallible Book as a 
lamp to our feet, and a light upon our path- 
way ; and in dark hours of bereavement 
what a cheerful gleam it pours into sorrow- 
ing homes and hearts ! One of the best 
proofs that my Bible is God's book is that it 
has a clear "thus sayeth the Lord" over the 
path that leads to heaven, and a most distinct 
''thou shalt nof over the enticing gateways 
that lead downward toward hell. As the 
night-watchman beside a railway track 
swings his red lantern in token of danger, 
so our loving Father holds out what may be 
called his red lights of warning and pro- 
hibition on the pathways to ruin. 

Not only does every true believer have 

his Bible for his rule of faith and practice, 

but he is promised the instruction and help 

of the Holy spirit. "He will guide you into 

70 



I 



GOD'S GOOD GUIDANCE 

all truth." In addition to this, the docile and 
obedient beUever has the example of his 
Master, who has said, ''He that followeth 
me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have 
the light of life." There have been some 
extravagant things said about walking "in 
his steps," but certain it is that if all Chris- 
tians would examine their Master's foot- 
prints they would oftener discover their own 
path of duty, and would not stray into the 
seductive roads to self-indulgence, and 
worldly conformities. "Follow me" means 
— go where you can have my presence and 
my blessing ; if we cannot carry Christ and a 
clean conscience with us, then not one step ! 
The infallible Word and the help of the 
Holy Spirit and the example of our Lord 
are not all that we have to direct us. There 
is also what we may call the pillar of Provi- 
dence. We often talk about "special provi- 
dence" because we can then detect the lead- 
ings of God's hand more clearly than at 
other times ; but the whole government of 
God in regard to us may be a complex series 
of overseeing and orderings. Sometimes 
71 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

the workings are exceedingly complex; just 
as in a watch the wheels move in opposite 
directions, yet the one mainspring drives 
them all, and on the dial-plate we read the 
meaning of the movements. The most vital 
steps in life turn on small pivots. The 
Bible abounds in the stories of special 
providences from Pharaoh's daughter go- 
ing down to bathe in the Nile to Philip's 
meeting the eunuch on his way to Gaza. 
Livingstone intended to go to China; but 
while he was boarding in London, Robert 
Moffat happened in one evening, and talked 
to the boarders about Africa; that talk de- 
cided the young Scotchman towards the 
most wonderful missionary career of the 
nineteenth century. Nearly every minister 
may have his experience of the divine guid- 
ance. After long and painful perplexities 
about accepting a certain attractive call, I 
opened a book and read this seldom noticed 
text, "Wherefore gaddest thou about to 
change thy way?" In an instant I made a 
decision on which the major portion of my 
whole life-work has turned. My faith 
72 



GOD'S GOOD GUIDANCE 

forbids me to believe that this incident was 
a matter of haphazard chance. 

One important thing with the children of 
Israel was to keep their eyes on the movings 
or the restings of the cloud-pillar. They 
did not move it ; the cloud moved them. A 
Christian who would be happy and success- 
ful in his spiritual life must be an open- 
eyed servant of his Master. He must come 
to his Bible not to read his own precon- 
ceived opinions into the Book, but bring 
God's teachings out of the Book. He must 
be open-eyed to study his Lord's example, 
"Looking unto Jesus" signifies not only the 
ground of our salvation, but the guidance of 
our conduct. We must be open-eyed to our 
seasons of earnest prayer, to discover what 
responses our consciences give ; for the Holy 
Spirit often works on a good conscience as 
the noonday sun does on a sea captain's 
quadrant. Especially must we keep our 
eyes clear and "single" to watch the lead- 
ings of Providence. Does the cloud very 
evidently move? Then pull up tent-pins, 
and be ready to go where it guides you. 
7Z 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

Paul was not the only minister who had the 
divine direction to his right field of labor. 
Every Christian also — whether pastor, or 
teacher, or parent, or whatever he or she 
may be — who longs to win souls must be 
on the lookout for opportunities. I fear 
that lost opportunities will cast a shadow on 
the golden pavement of heaven with more 
than one of us ! 

Finally, let us watch for the cloud, and 
walk by the cloud of God's good guidance. 
Study the Book. Study Christ, and study 
Providence, and you will seldom make a 
serious mistake in life. God will show you 
by the way he leads you whither he desires 
you to go. The pillar of cloud will only be 
needed until you and I get to the Jordan. 
On the other side of the parted river is the 
flashing glory of the New Jerusalem! 
March by the cloud till you reach the crown ! 



74 



XII 

THE RAINBOW ABOUT THE 
THRONE 

A VERY common source of error is a dis- 
torted view of the character of God. Some 
persons take a very one-sided view of him, 
and a simple attribute is taken for God him- 
self. For example, there are some who fix 
their eyes alone on the divine love, and when 
they preach, they only exhibit a Being of 
infinite and unmixed compassion. There is 
no cloud of holy wrath against sin in their 
azure sky, and no place for a hell in their 
rose-water theology. A whole class of 
solemn Bible-truths they consign to the 
waste-basket. 

Another type of theologians, with equally 

distorted vision, can see only the divine 

attribute of justice and holy abhorrence of 

sin. When a man of this type preaches, he 

75 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

makes his hearers hsten only to the inces- 
sant thunderings of Sinai ; and before their 
eyes he presents only a "certain fearful look- 
ing for judgment and fiery indignation." 
His half-truth becomes serious error; he 
may awaken sinners, but he does not make 
Christians. He has a Sinai, but no Calvary. 
To neither of these opposite types of theo- 
logians does God appear in his true and 
adorable attributes of infinite perfection. No 
such distorted view of our heavenly Father 
was revealed to that solitary dweller on the 
isle of Patmos when he beheld a great white 
throne and Him who sat upon it. *'He that 
sat there was to look upon like a jasper and 
a sardine stone; and there was a rainbow 
round about the throne in sight like unto an 
emerald." Out of the throne proceeded 
lightning and thunderings; yet above it 
hung the soft effulgence of the rainbow. 
Mysterious as that apocalyptic vision was, 
it certainly does illustrate the sublime truth 
that the infinite Justice of God is overarched 
by his infinite Mercy that crowneth its ter- 
rors as with a robe of glorious light. The 
76 



THE RAINBOW 



glory of these divine attributes is in their 
perfect harmony. Separated, one would be- 
come weakness, and the other would become 
cruelty ; one would fill heaven with unre- 
pentant rebels, and the other would con- 
sign every transgressor to a hopeless perdi- 
tion. When viewed together, we ''behold 
the goodness and the severity of God ;" com.- 
bined together, they have given birth to a 
scheme of Redemption that will be an object 
of adoring wonder while eternity endures. 

The tender mercy of our heavenly Father 
began with the beginnings of the human 
race, and runs on down through all history. 
When our forefather committed that great 
primal sin of disobedience, the divine mercy 
rainbowed the cloud of divine displeasure 
by the promise of a Saviour. When the 
gates of Eden closed behind him, gates of 
Gospel mercy began to open before him. 
Even that physical curse, "in the sweat of 
thy face shalt thou eat bread until thou re- 
turn unto the ground," hath in it the seed of 
many blessings. Without the toil to earn 
it, the bread would lose half its relish; 
17 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

without the fatigues of labor, sleep would 
lose half its sweetness. Verily, the effects 
of that primal curse have been so disposed 
that justice has ended in loving kindness, 
and the sentence pronounced at the gates of 
Eden has gone out into multiplied blessings. 
That sorrow came into this world as the 
bitter fruit of sin is the common faith of 
Christendom. Yet sorrow and suffering are 
not unmixed evils; affliction is often the 
school in which the noblest characters are 
formed. How often we misread what may 
be called permitted providences ! It was a 
terrible trial to the ancient patriarch that 
his favorite son Joseph was taken from him. 
"All these things are against me," is the bur- 
den of his pitiful wails. While he is wail- 
ing, the caravan heaves in sight that brings 
to him the tidings that Joseph is alive ; and 
he is prime minister of Egypt. What 
Jacob's wicked sons "meant for evil" God 
had turned into a blessing. A Hebrew 
mother once named her boy Jabez, "because 
I bore him with sorrow." Yet the child 
that was born in grief and given a sad name 
78 



THE RAINBOW 



grew up to be the ornament of her house, 
and "more honorable than his brethren." 
His history was hke the April showers, 
which begin with weeping clouds, and end 
in brilliant sunbursts, and in rainbows 
painted on the sky. Good friends, have not 
you and I often had rich mercies brought to 
us under a very dark pall ? Yes, and some 
of our richest blessings have come to us 
when our righteous Father was punishing 
us for our sins. God chastises us in love; 
and the difference between a true Christian 
and a sham Christian is that one mourns 
over sins, and the other never minds it. 
Blessed are they that mourn — and mend! 
Compunction of a godly sort tends to 
growth in grace. There are too many dry- 
eyed Christians in this world. There ought 
to be more tears of penitence over neglects 
of duty to our fellow-creatures, and over 
violations of Christ's commandments ; then 
they that sow in the tears of contrition 
would reap in the joys of pardon and in- 
creased spiritual power. Those are the 
tears that make rainbows. 
79 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

Let us go back now to the point whence 
we started, and look at the most wondrous 
way in which the justice of the holy God is 
overarched by his sovereign mercy — and 
that is in the glorious scheme of Redemp- 
tion, In these times I fear that the great 
central doctrine of the Atonement is not pre- 
sented as often and as Spiritually as it ought 
to be. Phillips Brooks was right when he 
said that "the preachers who have moved 
and held men have always preached doc- 
trine ; no exhortation to a good life that does 
not put behind it some truth as deep as 
eternity can seize and hold the conscience." 
Perhaps one reason why that eternal truth 
of the Atonement is not oftener preached is 
that pulpit-teachers do not fix their eyes 
enough upon the exceeding sinfulness and 
damnableness of sin against a righteous God. 
They do not listen to the "thunderings from 
that throne which is like a jasper and a sar- 
dine stone." Jehovah is infinitely holy, and 
the "deep substrata and base of all his eth- 
ical attributes are eternal law and impartial 
justice." Law is as much obligated to punish 
80 



HE RAINBOW 



transgressors as transgressors are obligated 
to obey law. If God should wink at sin his 
throne could not stand a moment. 

It is only when we fix our eyes upon the 
crystalline purity of that throne, and listen 
to the thunders of the divine justice, that we 
can understand aright and adore aright that 
magnificient Rainbow of Redemption that 
Christ's atoning work has thrown round 
about that throne. Jehovah can be just, and 
yet the justifier of every sinner that repents 
and believes on and obeys the crucified Re- 
deemer. The atoning blood of Christ is the 
central fact in the gospel of grace. If we 
are justified, it is by faith in Jesus's blood ; 
if we are purified, it is because that blood 
cleanseth from all sin; if we ever gain ad- 
mission to the shining ranks in heaven, it ig 
because we have washed our robes and made 
them white in the blood of the Lamb. Paul 
gloried in pointing the eyes of all sinners to 
that resplendent rainbow of Redemption ; it 
has been the theme of the Wesleys, Chal- 
mers, the Spurgeons, the Maclarens, the 
Moodys, and the mightiest ministers of our 
8i 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

modern times. The man who cannot get 
into a holy glow in pointing the sinful and 
the suffering to that rainbow of atoning 
love, can never hold thoughtful minds under 
the spell of the "power from high." Lift 
your eyes often, brethren, toward the great 
white throne, and get fresh inspiration from 
that bow of love that flashes like an 
emerald ! 



82 



XIII 

SWEETENING THE BITTER THINGS 

What a fine series of life lessons for the 
Christian is presented by the journeyings 
of the children of Israel from Egypt to the 
Promised Land ! Almost every scene illus- 
trates some practical truth or spiritual ex- 
perience. For example, the Israelites, soon 
after leaving the Red Sea, and after a weary 
march over torrid sands, came upon a foun- 
tain in the desert. They rush forward 
eagerly for a refreshing draught. But, alas ! 
the first taste is a taste of disappointment; 
for the waters are so bitter that neither man 
nor beast can drink them ! At once the 
murmuring multitude give to the unpala- 
table waters the name of "Marah," which 
signifies the waters of bitterness. There is 
a still more terrible bitterness of disap- 
pointment in their hearts. They forget all 
83 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

about their deliverance from the land of 
bondage and the waves of the Red Sea, and 
think only of their present troubles. With 
a mixture of ingratitude and despair, they 
crowd about their leader and cry out : 
"What shall we drink ?" 

Now, this exciting scene beside the foun- 
tain of Marah finds a parallel in many a 
chapter of our life experience ; and we read 
of such in the lives of others. Abraham 
Lincoln was keenly disappointed because he 
did not win a certain office under President 
Taylor, and afterward that he was not 
elected to the United States Senate; but 
then he might have missed the most exalted 
station that any American has won in this 
century. Young Frederick W. Robinson 
was disappointed because he did not get a 
commission in the British army ; but God 
had a better place for him in the army of 
Jesus Christ as the most brilliant preacher 
in the Church of England. In our own 
humble experience we have had some tastes 
of the waters of Marah. We had set our 
hearts on some favorite plan or project. 
»4 



SWEETENING BITTER THINGS 

Perhaps we were going on a long-coveted 
tour, and had made all our arrangements. 
But the day appointed for our departure 
finds us on a bed of severe sickness, and the 
medicines we swallow are not as bitter as 
the disappointment. Selfishness murmurs 
and chafes under the trial. But presently 
we begin to discover that the sick-bed lay 
right on the direct road toward Canaan. 
We begin to talk with our hearts, and to 
think over our past lives. We make a fresh 
covenant with God that if he will restore us 
to health we will use it for him, and be 
more fruitful Christians. We take up one 
precious promise after another and drop it 
into the fountain of trial, and lo ! the bitter 
waters begin to taste sweeter to us ! Prayer 
becomes sweeter, and Christ's presence 
sweeter, and something whispers to us; 
**After all, is not this better for me than 
the journey to Europe, or to California? Is 
it not good for me that I have been shut in 
here with my Saviour ?" 

Now, this was just what happened to dis- 
appointed and murmuring Israel. The Lord 
8S 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

showed to Moses a certain tree, which, 
when he had cast it into the fountain, the 
waters were made sweet, and the whole 
multitude drank of them with delight. We 
do not read that God created the tree by a 
miracle; he simply ''showed" it to Moses. 
So our heavenly Father does not create a 
Bible, or an atonement, or a mercy-seat, 
or the promises, or supplies of grace, ex- 
pressly for us. His Spirit opens our eyes to 
see them, and our hearts to enjoy them. He 
reveals to us the tree of healing which turns 
a draught of bitterness into a draught of 
holy joy. And so it is that 

"Trials make the promise sweet, 
Trials give new life to prayer; 
Bring us to the Savior's feet, 
Lay us low, and keep us there." 

I do not pretend to be a superior scholar 
in the school of providence, but many of 
the best lessons in life have been taught me 
by disappointment. One lesson we have all 
learned is that this world was not made and 
is not managed only for us. If it were, then 
the sun would shine just when we wanted a 
86 



SWEETENING BITTER THINGS 

fair day, and the rain would fall when our 
garden needed to be watered. But we have 
found that God goes right on and orders 
things as pleaseth him, without consulting 
us. And when our plans were thwarted, 
and a little Marah began to bubble up in 
our hearts, that stern schoolmaster, Disap- 
pointment, said to us: "Don't be selfish. 
This world was not made for you alone. 
Your loss is another's gain. The rain that 
spoiled your new mown hay made your 
neighbor's corn grow; the fall in grain or 
in dry goods will help yonder poor widow 
to feed and clothe her children more easily." 
Wherefore we were reconciled to our losses, 
and the little Marah began to taste sweeter. 
Another lesson taught us by that fountain 
in the desert is that when we get discon- 
tented and rebellious we need a bitter 
draught to cure us of the wicked habit of 
murmuring. We learn then to prize the 
mercies that we had regarded with indiffer- 
ence, and perhaps with ingratitude. Health 
becomes virtually new mercy to us after 
a long spell of severe sickness. Even ordi- 
87 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

nary preaching has a rich flavor to us when 
we have been shut away from the house of 
God for many weeks. Spurgeon says that, 
after a long and wearisome tramp over the 
Great Aletsch Glacier, in Switzerland, he 
and his companions became desperately 
hungry. A peasant went off to obtain some 
food at a chalet, and came back, bringing 
some milk that was too sour to drink, and 
bread that was too black and hard for them 
to eat. When, after a long pull, they 
reached their mountain inn, the most ordi- 
nary food was inexpressibly delicious. Our 
thankless hearts often need a Marah of dis- 
appointment or privation in order to make 
us appreciate the good gifts of God for 
which we cared too little before. 

There is not a single person who reads 
these lines who has not had some bitter 
cups pressed to his lips. No journey to the 
heavenly Canaan is trodden without some 
Marahs on the road. The power and the 
glory of Christ's grace are in sweetening 
the draught. I have often sat down beside 
a child of God who had in her hand a bitter 
88 



SWEETENING BITTER THINGS 

cup of trial, but the sweet breath of Jesus 
has turned the bitterness into such a bless- 
ing that she tastes the love of Jesus in every 
drop. Grand Old Richard Baxter, after a 
life of constant suffering, exclaimed : *'0, 
my God, I thank thee for a bodily discipline 
of eight and fifty years!" That noble and 
consecrated layman, Harlan Page, of New 
York, during his last illness uttered these 
triumphant words : ''A bed of pain is a pre- 
cious place when we have the presence of 
Christ. God does not send one unnecessary 
affliction. Lord, I thank thee for suffering. 
I deserve it ; let me not complain or dictate. 
I commit myself to thee, O Saviour, and to 
thy infinite love. I stop my mouth and lie 
low beside thee." So did victorious grace 
build up that blood redeemed soul faster 
than disease was pulling down the frail 
tenement in which it dwelt. And through 
the rents which coming death was making 
heaven's glory shone in with a rapturous 
radiance ! These were splendid testimonies. 
I earnestly hope that in many chambers of 
sickness, or houses of sorrow, they may be 
89 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

like the boughs from that tree which Moses 
plucked and cast into Marah, making the 
waters of bitterness sweet to the thirsty 
drinkers, God knows best. 

"All the lessons he shall send 

Are the sweetest; 
And his training in the end 
Is completest." 



xiy 

RICH POOR PEOPLE 

A LETTER has just reached me from a ven- 
erable lady whose life-clock has reached to- 
day the high mark of eighty-eight. She 
has been for many years the inmate of a 
charitable "Home" for the aged and the im- 
poverished — a kindly provided ''Snug-Har- 
bor" for those whose fortunes have been 
wrecked by the storms of adversity. This 
good woman is one of God's heiresses, and 
is getting part of her great inheritance in 
this world ; for poor as she is in purse, she 
writes me that she is daily feeding on her 
Bible, and has just been reading a consola- 
tion which has "greatly joyed her heart." 
No letter of condolence for such a happy 
soul as that ; in God's sight she is one of the 
richest women in that city. "The Lord is 
my portion," saith her cheerful soul. 
91 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

There are plenty of earthly cisterns that 
are being shattered, or are running dry. 
The chief thing in the cistern was money, 
and that has leaked away. The bags that 
hold a rich man's money are "full of holes." 
While he is sleeping the fire may consume 
his warehouses, the gales may wreck his 
ships, or his stocks and bonds may be 
dwindling towards worthlessness. I once 
overtook and walked in a New York street 
with a man who in former days had been 
a financial king; I talked with him out of 
sheer compassion, for he looked so lonesome, 
and nobody noticed him. His sceptre had 
been broken, and those who had courted him 
in his days of prosperity had "cut" him in 
the wintry days of his adversity. His in- 
vestments had been swept away; and that 
raises the vitally important question whether 
there are not some investments in this world 
that we can make which are absolutely cer- 
tain never to depreciate ? 

Yes, there are. The Bible speaks of them 
as the "portion of the soul." It is an actual 
solid possession, and it is one that meets the 
92 



I 



RICH POOR PEOPLE 



soul's necessities. That man or woman is 
well off who has what meets and satisfies 
his or her real wants. Many of the so- 
called "want'' are really fictitious. Daily 
bread is an actual necessity, and Christ 
teaches us to pray for that ; but a sumptuous 
dinner is a luxury. It is not really neces- 
sary for anyone's health or happiness of 
heart that he should have a handsome house 
or a large bank account, or a luxurious table, 
or high social rank, or any of those things 
''for which the Gentiles seek." There are 
certain possessions, however, that are in- 
dispensable to our happiness; they are — 
peace of mind, a clear conscience, the for- 
giveness of our sins, the favor of God, the 
chance to be more or less useful, and that 
infinite wealth that is summed up in having 
Jesus Christ in our souls. 

More than one person who is under the 
harrow of pecuniary anxiety or some other 
sharp affliction will read this article, and say, 
"Well, I wish I could feel as contented as 
that cheerful old lady in that charity 
"Home." Her fortune had been lost, and 
9J 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

yet she is rich ; her kindred are gone, and yet 
she is not lonely. My friend, just inventory 
the good things that you may have if you 
will seek for them in the right place and the 
right way. 

The value of a banknote depends on the 
assets of the bank; and the value of God's 
promises depends on the resources of His 
power and boundless love. My friend, just 
open your casket and read such promises as 
these: ''No good things will He withhold 
from them that walk uprightly" — "I will 
never forsake thee" — "My grace shall be 
sufficient for thee." God never defaults in 
His promises. Do you crave friend- 
ship? Then find a Friend who "sticketh 
closer than a brother." Are you lonesome? 
Listen to that sweet voice — "Lo ! I am with 
you always." Are you often distracted with 
worries? Cast your cares on Him; He 
careth for you. Just think who it is that 
says, "My peace I give unto thee." Do 
you crave a full assurance that all is well 
with you? Then practice the faith of ad- 
herence to Christ. Remember that faith 
94 



RICH POOR PEOPLE 



is the milk, and assurance is the cream that 
rises on it; if your milk is half water, you 
cannot expect much cream. When income 
runs down low, invest more in kind deeds 
to other people; that pays solid comfort. 
Is your heart aching at the sight of that 
empty crib, or of that empty chair at your 
plain table ? Then don't let your grief stag- 
nate ! it will turn to poison ; draw it off by 
trying to help somebody poorer than your- 
self. The saddest thing about grief is that 
it tends to make us brood, and grow selfish. 
Wealth or poverty, cheerfulness or discon- 
tent, sunshine or darkness depends on our 
own hearts. With Jesus Christ securely 
there, you are rich. That cheerful letter that 
inspires this article was written by an aged 
hand in the "Louise Home" in a certain city. 
Methinks the dear Master was whispering 
to her, as He does to all of us who trust 
Him — "A little while and ye shall see Me; 
I go to prepare a place for you, and will 
come again and receive you unto Myself." 



95 



XV 
GOD'S KINDNESS TO LAME SOULS 

After David had been firmly seated on 
the throne he inquired whether any of the 
house of Saul were yet living; for if so, 
he would like to show them kindness for 
the sake of his beloved friend Jonathan. 
An old family steward named Ziba reports 
to the King that there is a son of Jonathan 
yet living who is "lame on the feet." This 
is about the only fact known in regard to 
the poor waif of a dethroned royal family. 
He is a cripple. Ever sincf^ his nurse had 
fled from the house at the tidings of Jona- 
than's bloody death, and dropped the little 
five-year-old in her panic, he had been in- 
curably lame in both his feet. And so fie 
had been sheltered in the house of one 
Machir, over on the eastern side of the 
Jordan. 

96 



i 



GOD'S KINDNESS 



As soon as David learns that a child of 
his bosom friend is still in the land of the 
living, he remembers that he had once made 
a covenant with Jonathan to show the 
"kindness of the Lord" to his house forever. 
He promptly sends one of the royal chariots 
to Lodebar with orders to bring the poor 
lame Mephibosheth up to court. When the 
abashed cripple reaches the palace, and hob- 
bles into the King's presence chamber he 
is perfectly overwhelmed. He falls on his 
face, and exclaims, "What is thy servant 
that thou shouldest look upon such a dead 
dog as I am?" Mephibosheth seems to 
have been a shy and gentle creature, like 
many others who suffer from bodily infirmi- 
ties; but there is nothing which so soon 
lays one flat on the face as a volley of unex- 
pected kindness. No artillery kills an 
enemy like a broadside of love. If Mephi- 
bosheth had been taught from his childhood 
to regard David as the destroyer of the 
dynasty of Saul, all his early prejudices 
must have melted at once when the mon- 
arch received him so graciously. Not 
97 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

only receives him, but adopts him "for 
Jonathan's sake" into the royal household! 
He sits at the King's board every day and 
finds a royal table, "a good hiding place for 
lame legs." In that wild age of war, and 
violence, when revenge was so constantly 
practiced, this little cabinet-picture of the 
fugitive cripple seated at the imperial ban- 
quets has in it the lineaments of the New 
Testament Gospel. It is a very pretty 
parable of God's, mercy to crippled souls. 

Every sinner is lamed by sin, and is 
wholly impotent to restore himself. When 
the Holy Spirit awakens a sinner to a deep 
conviction of his own guilt, he is ready to 
confess his utter unworthiness in language 
as strong as that used by Mephibosheth. 
The godly Rutherford of Scotland describes 
himself in the same impassionate language 
as having once been a "dead carcass not 
able to step over a straw." John Bunyan 
uses quite as vehement expressions in his 
"Grace Abounding." Pungent convictions 
of personal guilt do not appear to be as com- 
mon in these days; but I doubt whether 
98 



GOD'S KINDNESS 



any man can rightly appreciate the wonder- 
ful mercy of God in Jesus Christ, and the 
infinite preciousness of atoning love unless 
he has been broken down in penitent self- 
abasement. The lowliest convictions of 
guilt are usually the prelude to the loftiest 
attainments in godliness. The repentant 
and restored ripples are those whose feet 
become "like hinds' feet" in running in the 
pathway of God's commandments. 

There is a beautiful parallel between 
David's embassy of kindness to bring up 
Mephibosheth to Hebron, and the mission 
of the atoning Saviour to crippled humanity 
in its far-off wanderings. That royal char- 
iot halting at the poor lame fellow's door 
to carry him up to the King is a fine figure 
of divine mercy that stops at the sinner's 
doorway. Grace furnishes the chariot. 
Grace sent the only begotten Son of God 
into the world that whosoever trusteth in 
Him should not perish but have everlasting 
life. This home-bringing of the lamed ex- 
ile to the palace reminds us of that scene 
where the father welcomes home the wan- 
L.ofC. 99 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

derer from the far country and kills for him 
the fatted calf, and clothes him in the goodly 
robe. This reception of a repentant and 
believing soul is all for Jesus's sake, even 
as Mephibosheth was welcomed for Jon- 
athan's sake. Christ's sufferings on the 
cross and His intercession are at the bottom 
of every sinner's salvation. When any of 
us get admission to the marriage-supper 
in our Father's House, our song will be to 
Him who came to seek and to save the lost. 
What a family of restored cripples there 
will be at that supper of the King ! 

God's kindness to the lame is not only 
manifest in the atonement, or in pardon to 
the penitent sinner or in converting grace; 
it is shown in His patient forbearance and 
compassion to stumbling Christians. 

For Christians do stumble, and some of 
them shockingly. Peter was not the first 
or the last to catch a disgraceful fall; he 
never would have healed a cripple in the 
"Gate Beautiful" if his own spiritual lame- 
ness had not been cured by his forgiving 
Saviour a short time before. God's am- 

100 



GOD'S KINDNESS 



bulances are kept pretty busy. The differ- 
ence between an impenitent sinner and a 
Christian is that the one is wilHng to con- 
tinue weak and wicked; the other when he 
sHps and sprains himself is not content to 
he on his face, but repents and seeks re- 
covery, and walks more circumspectly. 
God is very forbearing toward the feeble 
Christians who like Bunyan's "Ready-to- 
halt" hobble on crutches; but such slay no 
giants, reap no harvest, and win no crown. 
They are not models. When a soul has 
once been healed by divine grace of its 
lameness, it ought, like the cured cripple 
at the temple-gate, to be walking and leap- 
ing and praising God. 



lOI 



XVI 
THE PARSON'S BARREL 

"Well, parson," said Deacon Goodgold 
to his pastor, "that last Sunday morning's 
sermon was number one prime; may I ask 
you which end of the barrel that came out 
on? Your barrel is like the widder's in 
Scripter; it never seems to give out." 

"I am glad that my sermon suited you," 
replied the genial dominie, "for I got part 
of that at your house, part came from neigh- 
bor B — 's and part from poor Mrs. C — , in 
whose sick room I spent an hour, and one 
hint in it came from your boy Frank, who 
rode by my house on 'old gray* without any 
saddle or bridle. I picked up some of the 
best things in that discourse during an 
afternoon spent in pastoral visiting." 

Pastor Honeywell was a shrewd man and 
a faithful, godly pastor. He had not a great 
many books, and his family increased faster 

102 



THE PARSON'S BARREL 

than his library. His Bible he had at his 
finger's ends; it was his one great, unex- 
hausted storehouse of heavenly knowledge. 
But he also had a book of human knowledge 
second only to God's Word. In the fore- 
noon he studied his Bible, and in the after- 
noon he sallied out with horse and buggy 
and studied his people. He rode with his 
eyes open, finding illustrations — like his 
divine Master — from the birds of the air, 
the flowers of the field, and the sower or 
plowman by the wayside. His mind was on 
his sermon all the week. If he saw a far- 
mer letting his team "blow" under a road- 
side tree, he halted and had a chat with him. 
He observed the farmer's style of thought, 
gave him a few words of golden counsel, 
and drove on, leaving the farmer something 
to think of and something to love his pastor 
for also. If he saw a boy on his way from 
school he took the lad into his buggy and 
asked him some questions which set the 
youngster to studying his Bible when he got 
home. Pastor Honeywell caught his con- 
gregation when they were young. 
103 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

Deacon Goodgold was curious to know 
more about the way in which his minister 
had gathered up that last Sunday's sermon. 
"Well," replied the parson, ''I was studying 
on the subject of trusting God in time of 
trial. First, I went to the fountain head, 
for my Bible never runs dry. I studied my 
text thoroughly, comparing Scripture with 
Scripture. I prayed over it ; for a half hour 
of prayer is worth two hours of study in 
getting light on. the things of God. After I 
had put my heads and doctrinal points on 
paper I sallied out to find my practical ob- 
servations among our congregation. I rode 
down to your house and your wife told me 
her difficulties about the doctrine of assur- 
ance of faith. From there I went over to 
your neighbor B — 's house. He is terribly 
cut down since he failed in business. He 
' told me that, with the breaking down of his 
son's health and his own breakdown in the 
store, he could hardly hold his head up, and 
he had begun to feel awfully rebellious 
towards his heavenly Father. I gave him a 
word or two of cheer and noted down just 
104 



THE PARSON'S BARREL 

what his difficulties were. From his store I 
went to see poor Mrs. C — , who is dying 
slowly of consumption. She showed me a 
favorite flower that she had put into her 
window-sill to catch the sunshine, and said 
that her flower had been a daily sermon to 
her about keeping her soul in the sunshine 
of her Saviour's countenance. Her talk 
braced me up and gave me a good hint. 
Then I called on the Widow M — , who al- 
ways needs a word of sympathy. Before I 
came away she told me that her daughter 
Mary could not exactly understand what it 
was to trust Christ and was finding no 
peace, although she had been under deep 
conviction of sin for several weeks. I had 
her daughter called in and I drew from her 
all the points of difficulty ; I read to her such 
texts of Scripture as applied to her case, 
prayed with her, and then started home. 
Your boy rode by my house on the old horse, 
which went along without any bridle, and 
stopped when he got to the bars that lead 
to the pasture. 

"Before I went to bed I worked in all the 
105 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

material that I had gathered during the 
afternoon; and I studied out the difficulties 
of your wife and of your neighbor B — , and 
of the troubled daughter of Widow M — , 
and I wove the answers to such doubts and 
difficulties in my sermon. The cheerful ex- 
periences of good Mrs. C — ■ in her sick 
chamber helped me mightly, for faith in 
action is worth several pounds of it in 
theory. I went to my pulpit last Sunday 
pretty sure that my sermon would help three 
or four persons there, and if it would fit 
their cases I judged that it would fit thirty 
or forty more cases. Human nature is 
pretty much alike, and sometimes when I 
preach a discourse that comes home close 
to my own heart's wants, I take it for 
granted that it will come to plenty of other 
hearts in the congregation." 

"Yes, parson," said the deacon, "your 
sermons cut a pretty broad swath. I often 
feel 'thou art the man' when you hit some 
of my besettin' sins. I have often been 
wantin' to ask why your sermon barrel 
has never giv' out, as poor Parson Scanty's 
io6 



THE PARSON'S BARREL 

barrel did before you came here. He al- 
ways giv' us about the same sermon, and as 
I set away back by the door, it got to be 
mighty thin by the time it got to my pew." 

Parson Honeywell turned pleasantly to 
the deacon and said: *'I will tell you what 
the famous old Dr. Bellamy once said to a 
young minister who asked him how he 
should always have material for his ser- 
mons. The shrewd old doctor said : 'Young 
man, fill up the cask, fill up the cask, and 
then if you want to tap it anywhere, you 
will get a full stream ; but if you put in very 
little, it will dribble, dribble and you may 
tap and tap and get precious little after all.' 
I always get my people to help me fill up the 
cask. Good afternoon, deacon.'* 



107 



XVII 
THE JOYS OF A PASTOR^S LIFE 

It is a lamentable and portentous fact 
that the number of candidates for the Gos- 
pel ministry is steadily decreasing. In one 
of the leading Protestant denominations 
they have decreased from 1,508 to 917 with- 
in the last five years ! At quite a recent 
graduation of a class of over 200 from one 
of our greatest universities, about fifty de- 
clared their purpose to enter upon commer- 
cial business, about the same number were 
looking to the legal profession, others to 
the medical and scientific pursuits ; but out 
of all the Christian students in that class 
only eleven announced their intention to 
become ministers ! 

Various reasons may be assigned for this 
sad falling off of candidates for the pulpit. 
These I will not discuss ; nor would I mini- 
108 



JOYS OF A PASTOR'S LIFE 

mize the difficulties which a faithful, earn- 
est, evangelical minister has to encounter. 
Some of these difficulties are arguments for 
multiplying rather than diminishing the 
number of the right kind of gospel preach- 
ers. My purpose is to present the golden 
side of the shield, and to tell young men 
of brains and culture and heart-piety what 
solid and substantial joys they forego when 
they turn away from a calling that an angel 
might covet. I do not underrate the need 
or the usefulness of godly laymen ; but there 
are peculiar satisfactions and honors and 
spiritual rewards to be won by the preacher 
who preaches God's glorious messages to 
men, and the pastor who gathers and feeds 
and leads the Master's flock. 

In the first place, he is in a close and covet- 
able partnership with the Lord Jesus Christ. 
His work is on the same lines with him who 
came to reveal the mind of God to sinning 
and suffering humanity, and to "seek and 
to save the lost." Christ's great commis- 
sion to the band of men who were in the 
most intimate relations to himself was, "As 
109 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

ye go, preach!" They were to be his wit- 
nesses, his representatives, his heralds and 
his ambassadors ; and that is the very same 
commission given to-day to every man 
whom he calls into his ministry. If you ask 
me, "What is a call to the ministry?" X 
would answer that it is both the ability and 
the intense desire, with God's help, to 
preach the Gospel of salvation in such a 
way that people will listen to you. 

In addition to the joy and honor of a 
peculiar partnership with the incarnate Son 
of God, every true minister is, in the best 
sense of the word, a successor of the apos- 
tles. Although without their infallible in- 
spiration and miraculous gifts, yet, like 
them, the faithful minister is the ambassa- 
dor of the Lord Jesus. The greatest of the 
apostles, in addressing his spiritual chil- 
dren at Thessalonica, exclaims/'What is our 
hope or joy or crown of rejoicing? Are 
not even ye in the presence of our Lord 
Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are 
our glory and joy." Rising above his 
poverty, his homelessness and his persecu- 

IIO 



JOYS OF A PASTOR'S LIFE 

tions, the old hero reaches out and grasps 
his royal diadem. It is a crown blazing 
with stars — every star an immortal soul 
plucked from the darkness of sin into the 
light and liberty of a child of God and an 
heir of heaven ! Poor, he is making many 
rich ; he would not change place with Caesar. 
My young brother, when you are fright- 
ened away by foolish fears, or drawn away 
by worldly ambitions from the Gospel min- 
istry, have you ever thought what an apos- 
tolic companionship you are despising? 
Have you thought of what a joy and crown 
of rejoicing you are flinging away? 

Think, too, of the glorious themes and tne 
sublime studies that will occupy your mind 
as a minister of God's Word. Is human 
science elevating? How much more is the 
science of Almighty God and of man's re- 
demption, and of the unseen realities of 
eternity? Your themes of constant study 
will be the themes that inspired the mighty 
Luthers and Wesleys and Pascals and Chal- 
mers ; you will be nurturing your soul amid 
those pages where John Milton fed, and 
m 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

amid the scenes that taught Bunyan his 
matchless allegory, and Jeremy Taylor his 
hearse-like melodies. Every nugget of 
fresh truth you discover will make you hap- 
pier than one who has found golden spoil. 
The study in which a devout pastor prays, 
and pores over God's Word, becomes an 
ante-chamber of the King, and he hears the 
cheering voice of the infinite Love, 'T am 
with you alway." 

If the high range of his studies and the 
preparation of his discourses are so stimu- 
lating to an earnest, soul-winning pastor, he 
finds even richer satisfaction in his pulpit, 
and in his labors among his flock and the 
surrounding community. John Bunyan 
voiced the feeling of such pastors when he 
said, "I have counted as if I had goodly 
buildings in the places where my spiritual 
children were born. My heart has been so 
wrapt up in this excellent work that I ac- 
counted myself more honored of God than 
if he had made me emperor of all the world 
or the lord of all the glory of the earth 
without it. He that converteth a sinner from 

112 



JOYS OF A PASTOR'S LIFE 

the error of his ways doth save a soul from 
death, and they that be wise shall shine as 
the brightness of the firmament." Thd 
young man who enters the ministry with 
this hunger for souls has "meat to eat that 
the world knows not of." His purse may be 
scanty, his parish may be obscure ; difficul- 
ties and hard work may often bring him to 
his knees; but while his Master owns his 
toils with blessings, he would not change 
places with a Rothschild or an Astor. Every 
attentive auditor is a delight; and when a 
returning and repentant soul is led by him 
to the Saviour, there is not only joy in 
heaven, but a joy in his own heart too deep 
for words. It is full measure, pressed 
down, running over. 

Converted souls are jewels in the caskets 
of faithful pastors; they will flash in the 
diadem which the righteous Judge will give 
them in that great day. Even here in this 
world, it is far better "pay" than any salary 
for a pastor to be told, "that sermon of yours 
helped me," or "that one brought me to 
Christ." During my fifty-six years' min- 
113 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

istry I have had an immense correspon- 
dence; but the letters that I embalm in la- 
vender are those which express gratitude 
for a soul-converting sermon, or for words 
of uplifting consolation spoken either in the 
pulpit or elsewhere. Happy the minister 
who is thus helped while he is helping 
others ! He gets a small installment of 
heaven in advance. 

Far be it from me to pronounce the min- 
istry a bed of roses or a hammock of luxury. 
A faithful, courageous pastor has trials, and 
not a few temptations ; they often attest his 
fidelity, they sinew his faith and drive him 
closer to Christ. A whining minister is a 
disgrace to his calling and an abomination 
to the Lord. The man who finds that he 
has mistaken his calling ought to demit the 
ministry at once. If the ministry were 
"weeded" to-morrow it would be the 
stronger. 

I do not assert that every able and godly 

young man in our schools and colleges 

should enter a pulpit. There are many 

who can serve their Master and their coun- 

114 



JOYS OF A PASTOR'S LIFE 

try more effectively in some other sphere. 
It is equally true that the only occupation 
that is not overdone in America is the oc- 
cupation of serving Christ and saving souls. 
The only profession that is not overcrowded 
is the '"guild" of good, clear-headed, con- 
scientious, industrious, Christ-loving min- 
isters. Not one such is likely to go begging 
for a place. They are in demand. 

If there may be some in the pulpit who 
ought to be out of it, there are many out of 
it who ought to have gone into it. This 
decrease of candidates for the pulpit is a 
bad symptom; it shows that the thermo- 
meter is falling in the churches. It shows 
that ambition for money-making and world- 
ly honors is sluicing the heart of God's 
church and drawing much of its best talent 
into these greedy outlets. Unless this de- 
pletion of the ministry is checked, a woe 
will be pronounced upon the churches, and 
a gospel famine will be the penalty. My 
purpose in this plain article is to send a 
hailing word of good cheer to the thousands 
of faithful shepherds of Christ's flocks. It 
115 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

is also to bring before Christian young men 
in our schools and colleges these two ques- 
tions: Have I the necessary gifts — mental, 
physical, and spiritual — for the gospel min- 
istry? If so, can I afford to rob my Master 
of the service and myself of its joys? 



ii6 



XVIII 

BRIGHT CHRISTIANS 

The houses of the people of Palestine, in 
ancient times, were not lighted by candles; 
therefore the translation of the fifteenth 
verse of the fifth chapter of Matthew in our 
common version is not correct. In the 
house of the poorest peasent was a lamp. A 
small cup or other vessel was filled with oil, 
a bit of linen rag or a wick was set afloat in 
it, and the simple contrivance was set on a 
lamp-stand. To put it under a couch or to 
hide it under a grain-measure would be ab- 
surd. Our Lord, in his sermon on the 
mount, alludes to the familiar lamp in every 
dwelling, and then says to his followers ^'so 
let your light shine before men." This is 
the manner in which every Christian should 
be luminous. The word "so" refers back 
to the previous verse. The motive for do- 
117 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

ing this then follows, viz., ''that men may 
see your good works, and glorify your 
Father which is in Heaven." Not for mere 
ostentation and self-glorification were they 
to make a display of their religion ; neither 
were they to conceal it by either indolence 
or cowardice. To turn the outside of their 
character in would be as harmful as to turn 
the inside of it out. 

The crying want of the times is more 
bright Christians. There are quite too many 
church members whose lamps were kindled 
for a little while — perhaps during the heat 
of a revival season — and then they have 
either been smuggled into a dark lantern, or 
else allowed to die down into a feeble glim- 
mer, barely visible through the smoke. For 
no mere selfish purpose does Jesus Christ 
bestow his converting grace upon any man 
or woman. He did not make you a Chris- 
tian, my friend, either for your own enjoy- 
ment in this world, or to save you from 
perdition in the next. He touched your 
heart with his illuminating grace, chiefly 
that you might impart the benefit of your 
ii8 



BRIGHT CHRISTIANS 

light to others, and glorify him. He com- 
manded the hght to shine into the darkness 
of your sinful soul, that you might give the 
light of the knowledge of God as seen in the 
face of Jesus to all with whom you come in 
contact. You may not be a magnificent 
Fresnel-burner like a Chalmers or a Wesley 
in their day, or like a Spurgeon or a Shaftes- 
bury or a Moody in our times. But the 
properties of light are the same in a house- 
hold lamp that they are in the huge lumin- 
ary that flashes from the tower at Sandy 
Hook; and in your little circle there is just 
as much need of a bright Christian as there 
is in the most conspicuous pulpit of Chris- 
tendom. 

If you neglect to let your light shine, 
however humble it be, not only will your 
own character suffer, but somebody else will 
be the worse for it. The simple failure of 
a signalman to swing his lantern at the 
right time, has sent a railway train into 
deadly ruin. Your failure to utter the 
right word, to do the right thing, or to 
exert the right influence may be sending 
119 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

some others off the track in the same fatal 
fashion. I know of certain households — 
perhaps yours may be one — in which the 
lamp smokes more than it shines. That son 
would not be so troubled with skepticism if 
he saw more attractive living evidence of 
Christianity in the daily conduct of his 
professedly Christian parents. Another son 
would not be seen so often on his way to 
the saloon, or some other dangerous haunt, 
if the torch of both warning and example 
were held up faithfully and lovingly. It is 
almost hopeless to expect conversions in 
some families. One reason is that there is 
a lamp of profession there which smokes 
foully instead of beaming brightly. The 
light that is in that house is fast becoming 
darkness. The oil has given out. Love of 
the world, or the greed of selfishness, or 
some other sin, has extinguished the love of 
Christ. The real cause of all spiritual de- 
clension is the lack of a Christly love and 
loyalty in the heart. When people are full 
of any subject they will speak out; they 
cannot help it. When your soul is on fire 

120 



BRIGHT CHRISTIANS 

with the love of Jesus and of your fel- 
lowmen, you will burn and shine uncon- 
sciously. Probably the most effective good 
which most genuine Christians do is in the 
way of steady, silent, and unconscious re- 
flection of Jesus Christ in their daily con- 
duct. To preach a sermon, or teach a 
mission-school class, or distribute Bibles or 
bread among the needy, is a direct, pre- 
meditated act of lamp-bearing. But to live 
along day after day luminously reflecting 
Christ in word or deed, at home, in the 
store, in the shop, and everywhere else, 
is just ''letting the light shine of its own 
accord. That is the sort or religion that 
tells. And, however glibly Brother A may 
speak in the prayer-meeting, or however 
brightly Sister B may shine in her Dorcas 
Society or "holiness meeting," yet if they 
end in smoke at home, theirs is but a dark 
and dreary dwelling. Trim the household 
lamp, good friends. A revival of thorough 
home piety is the most needed revival in 
these times, for the well-being of both 
church and commonwealth. 

121 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

Light is a combination of many rays, and 
each white ray a combination of many 
colors. If you apply the spectrum to a 
bright Christian, you will find that he sheds 
out various graces. Chiefest of all is the 
ray of love. This is the supreme grace 
which most completely reflects Christ Jesus, 
and which imparts the golden effulgence to 
a true, fervent, Christian life. It is not a 
flash of sentiment, or fltful gush of emotion, 
but a steady anthracite flame which glows 
all day and all night because the divine fire 
is burning in the soul. ''So have I loved 
you," saith the Master ; ''continue ye in my 
love." Where this lamp beams, the hum- 
blest home will be brightened, the hardest 
pillow will be softened, the coarsest fare 
will be sweetened. Love is the best grace 
Christ can give us, for in it he gives him- 
self ; it is the best we can return to him, for 
in it we give ourselves. . . . 

Here are a few of the rays which a bright 
Christian will reflect, while he is reflecting 
Christ. Trim your lamp, brother. Feed it 
afresh with prayer for more oil and with 



BRIGHT CHRISTIANS 

fresh inlettings of Jesus into your soul. 
Carry your lamp always wiah you, as the 
miners carry theirs on their hats, not only 
to work by, but to help their neighbors 
work. The world may discover Jesus Christ 
in you when they would find him in no other 
way. Light other people's lamps. A 
bright Christian is a ray shot from the 
throne of Heaven into this dark world. 
"Let your loins be girded about, and your 
lights burning." 



123 



XIX 

HOW TO BE CONTENTED 

"If we can not bring our means to our 
minds, then let us try to bring our minds 
to our means." That is an old Puritan 
minister's version of Paul's cheerful mes- 
sage to his Philippian brethren : "1 have 
learned, in whatsoever state I am, therein 
to be content." The great apostle was not 
content to be in a low spiritual state, and 
therefore he pressed toward the goal of a 
higher spiritual life every day. But he was 
content to be where his Master put him, to 
bear all the hard knocks and endure all the 
rough usage that he had to encounter in the 
path of duty. Paul's spirit was like a 
watch. You may carry it up and down 
with you, and shake it hither and thither; 
but the mainspring is not put out of order, 
nor do the wheels lose their regular motion. 
Paul was knocked about with cruel treat- 
124 



HOW TO BE CONTENTED 

mcnt and fierce persecutions ; but the main- 
spring of love for Jesus was not broken in 
his heart, and the wheels of his consecrated 
activity was undisturbed. 

Christian contentment is the cheerful ac- 
quiescence of the soul to the will of God in 
all conditions and under all weathers. It 
is the habit of the mind, just as faith is the 
habit of a healthy Christian, and benevol- 
ence is the habit of a philanthropist. Like 
faith it grows by practice, and, like faith, it 
is learned from God's Word, and is ma- 
tured by experience. The great, brave 
apostle learned it where he learned Christ, 
and he learned it from Christ, and in a 
pretty severe and costly school. Like every 
precious thing, we must pay the price for 
it. And, like most precious things, it is 
quite too rare, and the thoroughly contented 
people are in the minority. It is not every 
young minister who is satisfied to preach 
Jesus to a hundred new settlers in a frontier 
log church, or to a few hundreds of poor 
children in the mission-school of the slums ; 
yet, unless he is willing to be right there 
125 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

and to do just that thing, his Master will 
sooner put him down lower than say, *'Come 
up higher." We may overrate this grace, 
but it seems to us that genuine contentment, 
that is ready to let God have his own way, 
to let God put us where he chooses, even 
though the furnace be hot, is more scarce 
than it ought to be. He or she has attained 
to it who has learned to say, under disap- 
pointments the most bitter, and under trials 
which give the last turn to the screw and 
make the blood start, "Thy will, O God, be 
done !" 

This style of contentment is not reserved 
for sublime occasions ; it is visible in all the 
little, unnumbered events of everyday life. 
It is patient, not only under death strokes, 
but under petty vexations and wounding 
words and neglects ; it does not worry over 
hard seats or boring visitors or stupid ser- 
vants or a crying child. It manages to be 
happy in a small house when it can not 
afford a three-story mansion. So rich is it 
in God's promises and the sweet smiles of 
the Master and a good title to heaven, that 
126 



HOW TO BE CONTENTED 

it does not mind wearing a coarse coat and 
to trudge on foot toward the better country. 
It wears the herb called "heart's-ease" in its 
bosom ; it finds a cool spring to drink of in 
the lowliest vales of life, and catches grand 
outlooks from the summit of every steep hill 
it climbs. As it treads along its patient 
path it chants John Bunyan's quaint, simple 
song : 

*T am content with what I have, 

Be it little or much; 
And, Lord, contentment still I crave 

Because thou blessest such; 
Fullness to me a burthen is, 

As I go on pilgrimage. 
Here little, and hereafter bliss, 

Is best from age to age." 

Would to God we were all more con- 
tented with our mercies and more discon- 
tented with ourselves! It is the trying to 
live on external conditions that makes a 
Christian restless and wretched. A soul 
at peace with God and itself, a soul that de- 
lights in making other people happy, can 
sleep sweetly, like the old-time patriarch, 
with a stone for a pillow. 
127 



XX 

JESUS CHRIST THE HEART'S 
GUEST 

The advent of Jesus into a heart that is 
darkened by trouble is a wonderful source 
of joy. There is an * 'upper room" of the 
soul, an inner sanctum, of which we give 
up the key only to our nearest and dearest 
friends. It is inside of that "court of the 
Gentiles" which all our ordinary acquaint- 
ances are treading every day. That iimer 
chamber sometimes becomes what the room 
in Jerusalem was, on that night after the 
Master's crucifixion — a place of sore sor- 
row. A bereaved and forlorn company in- 
deed were the eleven disciples on that even- 
ing! 

And we feel somewhat as they did. But 
into our soul's private chamber — when the 
lights were burning low and the air is heavy 
128 



JESUS AS A HEART-GUEST 

with grief or disappointment — there is 
One who enters ! He comes in through the 
closed doors, and O, how sweetly sounds the 
voice of His love, as He says, "peace be 
unto you !" He shows us His hands pierced, 
and His side riven with the cruel spear for 
our sakes on His cross. When we recog- 
nize our divine guest, we are ready to say, 
in the language of Ray Palmer's sweetest 
hymn, 

"Earth has ne'er so dear a spot 
As where we meet with Thee." 

At such times of communion with Jesus, 
we do not need to give to Him the honey- 
comb; He gives it unto us. Its effusive 
sweetness makes our lips to sing for joy. 
His consolations fill the room with their 
choice perfume. Then we can exultingly 
say **My beloved is mine and I am His ; His 
left hand is under my head, and His right 
hand doth embrace me." He spreads the 
banner of His love over us ; we enter into 
a fellowship of His sufferings for us, and 
He with our griefs or disappointments. 
There is no sweeter, stronger fellowship 
129 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

with Jesus than to unfold all our troubles to 
Him. He lifts off the load. Instead of the 
spirit of heaviness He giveth the garment 
of praise. Then like the disciples in the 
Jerusalem chamber *Sve are glad when we 
see our Lord." 

It was in anticipation of all the seasons 
of trial and perplexity and bereavement that 
should come upon His followers that our 
Lord gave this precious assurance, "Ye now 
have sorrow, but I will see you again, and 
your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no 
man taketh from you." This joy — let us 
remember — flows from the actual spiritual 
presence of the Master with us. Peace 
comes when He comes and power comes 
also. We become strong with His strength 
and feel a fresh vigor steal over our fainting 
spirit. Dark hours bring no fears, for 
Christ's voice is heard continually saying 
unto us, "It is I ; be not afraid." 

To a true believer who is in this close 
heart-fellowship with Jesus, the largest for- 
tune can add very little ; and the loss of 
earthly property can take but little away. 
130 



JESUS AS A HEART-GUEST 

Nothing can break down a soul that is firm- 
ly established in this conscious experience. 
It is united to Him; it is under His wing, 
and all the clouds that overcast the sky of 
poor worldlings sail far below it. The hail- 
storm of trials, adversities and assaults, un- 
der which evil men are cowed, cannot hail 
upward, or reach the believer in his safe 
place of refuge. His joy is above the reach 
of the thunderbolts. So Christ Jesus enter- 
ing into Paul's soul kept him serene amid 
the Euroclydon tempest — and made Peter 
to sing in the midnight dungeon; Patmos 
was no longer a lonely spot to the Beloved 
Disciple when the Master was with him 
there. 

The more we have of Christ's presence, 
the more serenely and securely happy we are. 
An empty heart is a wretched heart. A 
worldling's treasures never satisfy; the 
more fuel that is heaped on the fire of covet- 
ousness the fiercer is the flame. I don't be- 
lieve that Rothschild's millions can ever im- 
part such exquisite joy as the saving of a 
soul gives to many a hard-toiling pastor or 
131 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

Sunday-school teacher. The millionaire will 
count up his possessions at last and say, 
*Ts this all?" The true Christian inven- 
tories his treasures and says "All things are 
mine and I am Christ's and Christ is God's." 
A believer's true joy is love clasping Jesus, 
and faith looking forward to the endless 
fellowship of heaven. "A little while and 
ye shall see me ; and where I am ye shall be 
also." 

If we make Jesus the guest of our hearts 
in this world, He will admit us to be His 
guest in the celestial mansion. When we 
return home from a long journey, it is not 
the house, the furniture or the fireside that 
gives us joy ; it is the sight of the loved ones 
there. So in our Father's House it will not 
be the pearl-gates or the golden streets; — 
we shall be glad when we see our Lord ! In 
the language of Bonar's sweet hymn — 
which I heard sung at his funeral — 

"Christ will be the living splendor, 
Christ the sunlight mild and tender. 
Praises to the Lamb we render, 
Ah, 'tis heaven at last ! 
132 



JESUS AS A HEART-GUEST 

Broken death's dread bands that bound us, 
Life and victory around us, 
Christ the King himself hath crowned us, 
Ah, 'tis heaven at last ! 



133 



XXI 
SACRED MONEY 

In looking over the papers of my beloved 
and departed mother — who died at the age 
of eighty-five — I discovered the account- 
book which contained the expenses of my 
early boyhood. If it requires financial 
ability to manage a large estate, it requires 
still more to eke out a scanty income and 
make both ends meet. In the list of frugal 
expenditures made by that widowed mother 
for an only boy there stood recorded on 
almost every page the words, ** Sacred 
money." This was sometimes bestowed in 
making him a life member of the American 
Tract Society, or the Home Missionary 
Society, or some other Christian organiza- 
tion. There was also a stout, large envel- 
ope which bore the same label, "Sacred 
money." Into that envelope the good 
134 



SACRED MONEY 



woman was wont to put a certain portion of 
her very limited income as soon as it came 
into her hands. When the money was once 
placed in that wallet the Lord was sure to 
get His own. Come what might, no de- 
mand of luxury or of necessity was allowed 
to "rob God" of what had been consecrated 
to His service. 

My only apology for this peep of the 
public eye into a bit of private history is 
that it reveals the only sure and successful 
method of practising systematic beneficence. 
It fulfils the apostolic rule of ''laying by in 
store" a fixed sum for Christian charity, and 
then gives conscience the key. To touch a 
dime of that money for any mere secular 
use would have been in that godly matron's 
eyes as egregious a theft as the picking of a 
neighbor's pocket. That lesson in system- 
atic beneficence has lasted me all my life, 
and I most earnestly commend it to every 
Christian parent. Every child should be 
reared with the firm persuasion that if he 
gives his heart to Christ, he at the same 
time gives to Him not only his influence, 
I3S 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

but a certain reasonable share of his sub- 
stance. If God's day is held sacred, and 
God's house is sacred, so should the money 
that fairly belongs to Him be held sacred 
likewise. There is no haphazard about this 
method. The money thus put away and la- 
belled is to be out of the reach of selfishness, 
and religiously parcelled off for the various 
objects of benevolence as good judgment 
directs. 

If this system were adopted and practiced 
in every Christian family, what a revolution 
it would work ! Giving would be regarded 
as an act of divine worship ; the money thus 
consecrated in advance would be an element 
in the Sabbath service, and the pastor might 
fittingly (as some pastors now do) come 
down from his pulpit and invoke a special 
blessing on the offerings thus presented 
cheerfully to the Lord. This system 
thoroughly carried out would make the con- 
tributions of each church not a widely fluc- 
tuating, but a fixed and reliable sum from 
year to year. The great institutions of 
benevolence could fairly determine their 
136 



SACRED MONEY 



outlay, because they would know their prob- 
able income. The curse and stigma of 
debt would be avoided. The secretaries 
and directors of our Christian schemes 
would no longer be kept awake at night by 
the terrible spectre of ^'deficiency." The 
Lord would get His own and the Church 
would get the blessing, if in every Christian 
house there was a box or a receptacle that 
bore the inscription "Sacred money." 

In many families the sum thus conse- 
crated might be very small. But gifts to 
the Lord are to be weighed rather than 
counted. The two mites of the ''poor 
widow" outweighed the shekels of gold or 
silver cast by jewelled fingers in'to the 
Lord's treasury. The drops make the rivu- 
lets, and the rivulets fill the broad lakes. 
Nine-tenths of all the money that drives 
the financial machinery of Christ's Church 
comes from humble stewards, whose 
"sacred money" is reckoned by dollars and 
not by hundreds or thousands. 

Sometimes small donations yield large 
results. This reminds me of a pretty inci- 
137 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

dent that I may venture to relate, since it is 
not likely to meet the eye of the person 
referred to. When my Brooklyn church, in 
the days of its infancy, were building their 
present sanctuary they ran ashore for funds. 
The Civil War had just broken out, and al- 
most every new church enterprise came to a 
standstill. On a certain Sabbath I made a 
fervent appeal for help, and a visitor from 
New York heard the appeal and went home 
and spoke of it at his boarding-house table. 
At the table was a bright young lady who 
taught in a school and sustained her wid- 
owed mother out of her small salary. I 
had once rendered the young lady some 
trifling service, which I had quite forgot- 
ten, but she had not. The next day she 
came over to Brooklyn and told me how 
badly she felt that my church was in such 
straits. She was not a Christian and had 
never given anything to any religious ob- 
ject, but she felt desirous to contribute "her 
mite," and slipped into my hand a bit of 
paper containing some coin, which I put into 
my pocket with a word of sincere thanks. 
138 



SACRED MONEY 



After she had gone I opened the paper and 
found that it contained a fifty-dollar Califor- 
nia gold-piece ! 1 immediately sent her word 
that she must take it back, for I knew that 
she could not afford to give such a sum. 
But she wrote me that this, her first gift, 
had already afforded her such delight she 
would never allow it to be returned. The 
next Sabbath I told the story of the gold- 
piece, and it fired the congregation with 
fresh enthusiasm and brought in such con- 
tributions of funds as tided us over into 
deeper waters. The young lady herself de- 
termined to follow up her gift by coming 
over to our chapel every Sabbath, and was 
soon converted, and became a happy mem- 
ber of Christ's flock. 

The orphan girl married a young man of 
fine promise, and they are prominent mem- 
bers of a church in C — . Their two chil- 
dren are winning high honors at college. 
Verily that orphan girl's gold-piece was 
"sacred money," and it yielded a grand 
"dividend." I have told the story of that 
coin in more than one place where money 
139 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

was being raised under difficulties, and I 
should not wonder if it were to go on and 
accumulate still more at compound interest. 
The Lord's treasury is a wonderful institu- 
tion; it makes mites turn to millions, it 
pays magnificent dividends in this world, 
and its "sacred money" becomes precious 
treasure in heaven. 



140 



XXII 
TREASURES IN HEAVEN 

"Store away stores for yourselves in 
heaven." That is the rendering — in one of 
the carHer English translations of the Bible 
— of our Lord's injunction in His Sermon 
on the Mount. He had just told His hear- 
ers that the treasures laid up on earth were 
liable to be consumed by the moth and the 
rust, or stolen away by thieves. If they 
wanted to put what was dearest to their 
hearts out of the reach of the rust and the 
robbers, they must lodge them in God's 
keeping; there they would be safe. The 
shrewdest business man may often lie awake 
in uneasiness about the absolute security of 
his investments; the Master declares that 
what we invest in heavenly treasures can 
never be lost. 

Did Christ mean to recommend a large 
141 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

bestowment of money for charitable pur- 
poses in order to secure a place in heaven? 
Some have twisted this passage into a selfish 
direction and insisted that almsgiving in 
this world would purchase salvation in the 
next world. But our Lord never descended 
to such a mercenary morality ; God is not to 
be bargained with for gold or silver. The 
scope of this divine injunction is infinitely 
wider, higher and holier than any pecuniary 
transaction for selfish purposes; it has an 
intensely spiritual significance. The treas- 
ures to which he refers are all those objects 
for which an immortal being ought to live, 
and the possession of which are the most 
pleasing in the sight of God. When any 
man gives his heart to God, and sincerely 
aims to give his life to the service of God, 
he then makes God his trustee. His prop- 
erty may vanish in the flames, or be swept 
away by commercial hurricanes, but what 
is dearest to him is secure. "I know whom 
I have trusted, and I am persuaded that 
he is able to keep that which I have com- 
mitted unto him against that day." This 
142 



TREASURES IN HEAVEN 

precious passage covers more than the sal- 
\ation of a believer's soul. It embraces 
all the results and the fruits, and the out- 
come of a genuine Christian life. The 
moment that you are truly converted, that 
moment you begin to make spiritual invest- 
ments, you begin to lay up heavenly treas- 
ures. 

The servants of Christ have a different 
arithmetic from the worldling. He counts 
his gains by the earthly possessions that 
he accumulates. The Christian often gains 
by the losses of earthly things. "He that 
loses for my sake finds," is an assurance 
full of good cheer to many a tried and af- 
flicted child of God. Grasping after earthly 
v^ealth or honor costs very often a sad loss 
of grace and godliness. It is not v^hat we 
take up, but what we are ready to give up, 
that makes us spiritually rich. Giving up 
for the sake of our Master honors him, and 
adds to our treasures in heaven. Therein 
is the peculiar glory of the martyrs ; they 
counted not even their lives as dear, so that 
they might honor their crucified Lord, and 
143 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

glorious will be their reward among the 
crowned conquerors up yonder. 

It is impossible to compute what treasures 
every faithful Christian may be storing 
away for that celestial storehouse. There 
is a constant accumulation. There is a 
"laying up" day by day. God is a just 
accountant and a generous rewarder. A 
"book of remembrance" is kept, and God 
will give to every one as his work shall be. 
That record on high will read very differ- 
ently from the assessor's tax-books in this 
world. Plutus and Midas arc assessed in 
New York or London as millionaires. Up 
yonder a "certain poor widow" will out- 
shine many of these colossal money-mon- 
gers because she put into the Lord's treas- 
ury the two mites that were all her living. 
That box of alabaster which Mary broke 
over the feet of her beloved Master will 
not lose its fragrance in heaven. Every 
act of self-denial for Christ is an invest- 
ment for heaven. Every word spoken for 
him here will echo there. A precious en- 
couragement is this for faithful parents 
144 



TREASURES IN HEAVEN 

and Sniiday-school teachers and city mis- 
sionaries and the whole army of hard toilers 
in the service of the best of Masters. Do 
you sometimes get discouraged, my brother, 
because you do not see more immediate 
results of your efforts ? Don't worry. You 
are responsible for doing your whole duty; 
God is responsible for results. His "re- 
ward is with him" to give to every servant 
according as his work shall be. 

It goes without saying that, as they who 
turn many to righteousness will shine as 
stars in that celestial firmament, there are 
some favored servants of Jesus who will 
come into magnificent inheritances in 
heaven. We can imagine Robert Raikes 
surrounded by a multitude of those who 
were the spiritual trophies of his Sunday- 
schools, and Spurgeon welcomed by the 
happy souls whom he led to Jesus, and 
our own Moody finding his heaven all the 
more joyous for the number of those whom 
his untiring labors won to the life everlast- 
ing. Consecrated talents will then blaze 
as crowns of rejoicing. What an induce- 
MS 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

ment is this to every young man and woman 
who is raising the questions : How shall I 
employ my brains, my culture or my money 
to the best advantage? Even one talent, 
if not hidden or wasted, shall make some 
very humble Christians rich and radiant 
when they come into their heavenly inheri- 
tance. 

In these days, and especially in our own 
country, there is an astonishing increase of 
men of immense wealth ; the word "million" 
is almost as common as the word "thou- 
sands" was in the days of my childhood. 
Haste to be rich is the prevailing mania ; 
yet only a very, very small proportion of 
all the most eager seekers after wealth will 
ever attain it. But every one of my readers 
may become "rich toward God." The se- 
cret of it is to get by giving. This is the 
true paradox in the economy of grace. He 
that refuses to give his whole heart to Christ 
is doomed to perish v/ithout Christ. He 
that saves for self only loses; he that loses 
for Christ's sake is sure to save. Would 
you secure treasures in heaven? Then 
146 



TREASURES IN HEAVEN 

learn to give, and give bountifully. God 
loveth the cheerful giver. This is not to 
be limited to gifts of the purse; for the 
offerings of silver and gold are only a part 
of w^hat our Master has a right to; we 
must freely give of everything that WQ 
have freely received. 

If you have the heart to pray, give your 
prayers ; ansv^ered prayers will be part of 
your heavenly inheritance. You that have 
acquired wisdom and experience, give your 
counsels to those who need them. Give 
your personal labors for Christ and the sal- 
vation of souls ; no wealthy Christian ought 
to compound with his Master by drawing 
a bank check in lieu of personal Christian 
work. Those who have not much money 
or counsel, or Christian work to bestow, 
can afford the blessing of godly living and 
a holy example. And so a Christly life 
may be a constant expenditure ; even as 
the noonday sun overflows his golden urn 
of radiance, and is none the poorer in 
warmth and brightness. 

Such a life is a constant accumulation of 
147 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

heavenly treasures. It is a laying-out here 
for Christ, and a laying-up yonder. Every 
good deed is recorded; every victory over 
sin has its crown; every service for our 
Lord is remembered ; for he hath said, ''The 
reward is with me to give to every one as 
his work shall be." Labor on, pray on, 
suffer on, battle on, O faithful servant of 
the crucified Jesus ! Every day will add to 
vour treasures in heaven. 



148 



XXIII 
THE GREAT HYMNS 

It is a remarkable fact that the finest 
hymns in the EngHsh language were not 
composed by celebrated poets ; but, with the 
exception of those by Cowper and Mont- 
gomery, they are the productions of minis- 
ters of the Gospel and of godly women. 
The list of the ministers is headed by Watts, 
Charles Wesley, Toplady, Doddridge, New- 
ton, Keble, Newman, Lyte, Bonar, and Ray 
Palmer. The list of female hymn-writers 
is headed by Charlotte Elliott, Mrs. Sarah F. 
Adams, Miss Havergall, and Mrs. Prentiss. 
To these may be added our blind songstress, 
Fanny Crosby, whose productions have not 
much poetic merit, and yet are sung by mil- 
lions all round the globe. 

A perfect hymn need not be artistically a 
perfect poem ; much less is it a mere expres- 
149 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

sion of devout spiritual experience; but it 
must be addressed directly to the Divine 
Being. The immortal hymns that never 
wear out are not pious self-colloquies, or 
sermons to our fellow-creatures ; they all 
point upward. If my readers will run their 
eyes over the thirty or forty universal favor- 
ites that have stood the test of wide usage, 
and voice the heart sentiments of God's 
people in all lands, they will find that they 
are either metrical prayer, or metrical praise, 
or both combined. Millions of pious verses 
have been written; but the standard songs 
of solid gold could all be contained in a 
small booklet, and they were composed by 
men or women whose genius was largely a 
genius for godliness. 

By almost universal acclamation, the king 
of English hymns is ''Rock of Ages." 
Augustus Toplady was the son of a British 
officer, and was converted by the simple, 
fervid sermon of an uneducated exhorter, 
delivered in a barn, in Codymain, Ireland. 
He became the vicar of Broad Hembury, in 
Devonshire, and his zealous career, which 

1=^0 



THE GREAT HYMNS 



was like that "of a race-horse, all nerve and 
fire," ended at the early age of thirty-eight. 
He was waging a hot doctrinal controversy 
with John Wesley (in which both combat- 
ants indulged in some astonishing personal- 
ities), and one day in March, 1776, he pub- 
lished in the Gospel Magazine four stanzas, 
entitled ''A living and dying Prayer for the 
holiest believer in the world." These four 
hurriedly written verses are the immortal 
*'Rock of Ages," which Prince Albert re- 
peated on his dying bed, which Gladstone 
translated into Latin, which are in every 
evangelical hymn-book, and of which it has 
been truly said that "no other English hymn 
has laid so broad and firm a grasp on the 
English speaking world." A gentleman re- 
siding among the Mendip Hills has lately 
claimed that Toplady got his first idea of the 
imagery of the hymn while riding through 
a deep cleft of rocks in that neighborhood 
during a thunderstorm; but I can discover 
no good historical foundation for this singu- 
lar claim. The core-idea of this sublime 
production is the fervid outcry of a broken, 
151 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

penitent heart to the Saviour Christ. It 
begins in lowly prostration before the cross ; 
it begs for cleansing in the atoning blood; 
it reaches on to the hour when the heart- 
strings break in death; it sweeps out into 
eternity and soars to the judgment-seat; it 
closes with the glorified believer in presence 
of the great white Throne. What a mag- 
nificent upward movement ! I would rather 
be the author of this matchless prayer-song 
than of Milton's "Paradise Lost." 

It is a curious fact that the next most 
popular hymn in our language should have 
been composed by one of the two brothers 
with whom Toplady had his warm conflict. 
I rather rejoice in this fact, for it shows how 
all Christian controversialists must ground 
arms before the cross of Christ. Charles 
Wesley, the greatest of Methodist singers, 
and Chalmers, the greatest of Presbyterian 
preachers, hang side by side on my study 
wall in loving fellowship. If ever there was 
a born singer it was Charles Wesley ; he ate, 
drank, slept and dreamed of little else but 
making hymns. Of all his over six thousand 
152 



THE GREAT HYMNS 



hymns, the unquestioned masterpiece is 
"J^sus, lover of my soul." It is the queen 
of all the lays of holy love, the passionate 
yearning of a redeemed soul for its Re- 
deemer. Its figures of speech vary ; in one 
line we see a storm-tossed voyager crying 
out for shelter from the tempest ; in another 
line we see a child nestling in its mother's 
arms ; but the central thought never changes. 
O, how many of us in dark hours of trial 
have poured out our troubled hearts in these 
two beseeching lines, 

Leave, ah, leave me not alone, 
Still support and comfort me ! 

Wesley composed this superb hymn in early 
life, within a few months of the date of the 
beginning of Alethodism. Many apocryphal 
stories have been circulated as to the origin 
of the hymn, such as that its author saw a 
bird pursued by a hawk, and that he saw a 
dove fly into his window, etc., etc. They only 
belittle the glorious thought which filled his 
soul when he threw himself, like the beloved 
disciple, on the bosom of Jesus. 

153 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

Is there any American hymn that can be 
named after these two crown- jewels of Brit- 
ish hymnology? Yes, there is one, and the 
only one that I can now think of. In the 
year 1830, a young teacher in a school in 
New York City, who had been a dry goods 
clerk in Boston, and had just graduated 
from Yale College (at the age of twenty- 
two), sat down one afternoon and wrote 
four verses, which he said were "born of 
my own soul." His eyes swam with tears 
while he wrote. Two years afterwards the 
young Mr. Ray Palmer was met by Lowell 
Mason in Boston, and asked to furnish a 
hymn for a new music-book soon to be is- 
sued. Palmer drew out from his pocket the 
four verses beginning with the words, "My 
faith looks up to Thee." He handed them 
to Mason and — thus secured his own im- 
mortality ! 

This beautiful hymn of the cross — in- 
spired by the love of Jesus in his own heart 
— was addressed, not to his fellow-creatures, 
but directly to the Son of God ; and, like 
Toplady's great hymn, it rises from before 
154 



THE GREAT HYMNS 



the cross of Calvary up through consecra- 
tion and consolation under trials to the 
glories of the ''ransomed'" ! During his long- 
ministry, my beloved friend Palmer wrote 
several graceful and devout hymns; but he 
had struck twelve at the start. A few years 
before his death he officiated at a com- 
munion service in my Lafayette Avenue 
church in Brooklyn. While the cup was 
being passed to the communicants the dear 
old man broke out, and with tremulous voice 
sang his own heavenly lines. 

My faith looks up to Thee, 
Thou Lamb of Calvary, 
Saviour divine ! 

It was like listening to a rehearsal for the 
celestial choir, and the whole assembly were 
most deeply moved. 

Next to these three absolutely perfect 
productions, if I were called upon to name a 
fourth, I would indicate Charlotte Elliott's 
"Just as I am, without one plea." When in 
frail health, she composed at her brother's, 
the Rev. Henry V. Elliott's house in Brigh- 
ton, these exquisitely tender lines, and pub- 
155 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

lished them in the Invalid's Hymn Book. 
Although written by an invahd, they have, 
by God's blessing, made many a sick soul 
well. This is the hymn pre-eminently for 
revival meetings, and to be sung after a 
discourse to awakened sinners. It is a 
penitent's prayer in verse, and the person 
who can sing these words ''with the spirit 
and the understanding" is already on the 
way to Jesus. 

In one brief article it is impossible to 
discuss all the hymns that lie closest to my 
own heart, and which are likewise universal 
favorites. Each one is adapted to a partic- 
ular mood of mind. At the communion 
table we want to sing, ''When I survey the 
wondrous cross," or, "There is a fountain 
filled with blood." These were Spurgeon's 
favorites, and contained the keynote of his 
preaching. In a prayer-meeting nothing can 
be better than Bonar's "I heard the voice of 
Jesus say," or Mrs. Prentiss's "More love 
to Thee, O Christ !" or Perronet's "All hail 
the power of Jesus's name!" This last is 
a grand song on which to launch a meet- 
156 



THE GREAT HYMNS 



ing. For hours of bewilderment we are 
inclined to try Newman's wonderful lines, 
"Lead, kindly light !" The last two of 
those lines are unsurpassed for sweetness. 
At evening worship, what hymn can excel 
Keble's "Sun of my soul. Thou Saviour 
dear!" No missionary gathering would be 
complete without Bishop Heber's "From 
Greenland's icy mountains." Never can I 
forget the scene when a lovely member of 
my church in her dying moments repeated, 
with thrilling emotion, those infinitely tender 
lines of Henry Lyte, "Abide with me; fast 
falls the eventide." It was the last of earth, 
and sounded like the first strain of heaven. 
God be praised for all these magnificent 
hymns. They are the marching music to 
which all of Christ's vast army keep step, 
through sunshine or storm, on their upward 
way to glory. 



isr 



XXIV 
OUR GOD AS A REWARDER 

Among all the names and attributes of 
our heavenly Father, there is a very en- 
dearing one that is contained in that glori- 
ous epic of faith, the eleventh chapter of 
the Hebrews. We there read that God is 
the ''rewarder of them that diligently seek 
Him." That precious promise is linked 
with every earnest prayer and every act of 
obedience. God rewards labor. Does not 
every farmer act in faith when he drives 
his plow in springtime and drops his grain 
into the mellow ground? Every minister 
prepares his Gospel message, every Sabbath 
school teacher conducts the Bible lesson, 
and every godly parent tills the soil of the 
child's docile heart in the simple faith that 
God rewards sowing with harvests. 

God rewards obedience. He enjoins 
158 



OUR GOD AS A REWARDER 

Upon every sinner repentance and the for- 
saking of his sins and the acceptance of 
Jesus Christ as his atoning Saviour. Every 
sinner that breaks off from his sins and 
lays hold of Jesus Christ does it on the as- 
surance that our truth-keeping God wiD 
reward obedience. "By faith, Noah being 
warned of God of things not seen as yet, 
prepared an ark to the saving of his house." 
An unbelieving generation hooted, no doubt, 
at the ''fanatic" who was wasting his time 
and money on that unwieldly vessel. 

God rewards believing prayer for right 
things, when it is offered in a submissive 
spirit. "Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, 
and ye shall find." Humble, childlike faith 
creates a condition of things in which it is 
wise and right for God to grant what might 
otherwise be denied. We grasp the blessed 
truth that He hears prayer, and gives the 
best answer to prayer in His own time and 
way; upon these two facts we plant our 
knees when we bow down before Him. O, 
the long, long trials to which we are often 
subjected while our loving Father is testing 
159 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

our faith and giving it more vigor and 
volume ! 

Godly wives are often left to press their 
earnest petitions through months and years 
before the answer comes in the work of the 
converting Spirit. There was an excellent 
woman in my congregation who was for a 
long time anxious for the conversion of 
her husband. She endeavored to make her 
own Christian life very attractive to him 
— a very important point, too often neg- 
lected. On a certain Sabbath she shut her- 
self up and spent much of the day in be- 
seeching prayers that God would touch 
her husband's heart. She said nothing to 
her husband, but took the case straight up 
to the throne of grace. The next day when 
she opened her Bible to conduct family 
worship, according to her custom, he came 
and took the book out of her hands and 
said, ''Wifey, it is about time that I did 
this," and he read the chapter himself. Be- 
fore the week was over he was praying 
himself, and at the next communion he 
united with our church. 
i6o 



OUR GOD AS A REWARDER 

Verily, God is a rewarder of them that 
dihgently seek Him. That praying Han- 
nah who said, "The grief of my heart is 
that of all of my six children not one loves 
Jesus," was not satisfied that it should be 
so. She continued her fervent supplica- 
tions until five of them were converted 
during a revival. They all united in a day 
of fasting and prayer for the sixth daughter, 
and she was soon rejoicing in Christ. The 
victory that overcame in that case was a 
faith that would not be denied. 

Sometimes the prayers of parents are an- 
swered long after the lips that breathed 
them are molded into dust. When a certain 
Captain K — sailed on his last sea voyage he 
left a prayer for his little boy written out 
and deposited in an oaken chest. After his 
death at sea his widow locked up his chest, 
and when she was on her dying bed she 
gave the key to their son. He grew up a 
licentious and dissolute man. When he had 
reached middle life he determined to open 
that chest, out of mere curiosity. He found 
in it a paper, on the outside of which was 
i6i 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

written, "The prayer of M — K — for his 
wife and child." He read the prayer, put 
it back in the chest, but could not lock it 
out of his troubled heart. It burned there 
like a live coal. He became so distressed 
that the woman with whom he was living 
as his mistress thought he was becoming 
deranged. He broke down in penitence, 
cried to God for mercy, and, making the 
woman his legal wife, began a new life of 
prayer and obedience to God's command- 
ments. And so God proved to be the re- 
warder of a faith that had been hidden away 
in a secret place a half a century before! 
I have no doubt that among the blessed 
surprises in eternity will be the triumphs of 
many a believer's trusting prayers. 



162 



XXV 

LIGHT AT EVENING TIME 

I ONCE ascended Mount Washington with 
a party of friends on horseback, and we 
were overtaken by a violent storm, followed 
by a blinding mist. After our rough 
scramble over slippery rocks, it was a woe- 
ful disappointment to find, on our arrival 
at the *Tip-top House,'' that we could not 
see any object two rods from the door. But 
late in the afternoon the clouds began to 
roll away, and one mountain after another 
revealed itself to our view. At length the 
sun burst forth, and overarched the valley 
of the Saco with a gorgeous rainbow; we 
came out and gazed upon the magnificent 
panorama with wondering delight, and, as 
the rays of the setting sun kindled every 
mountain peak with gold, we all exclaimed, 
"At evening time it shall be light!" 
163 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

My experience on that mountain top is 
a striking illustration of the experiences of 
God's people in all ages. Faith has had 
its steep Hills of Difficulty to climb, and 
often through blinding mists and hurtling 
storms. Unbelief says, "halt," and despair 
cries, ''go back!" But hope keeps up its 
steady, cheery song, "It will be better fur- 
ther on." The poor old patriarch Jacob 
wails out that all things are against him, 
and that he will go down to his grave 
mourning. Wait a little. Yonder comes 
the caravan from Egypt laden with sacks 
of corn and bringing the good tidings that 
Joseph is the prime minister of Pharaoh's 
government! To the astonished old man 
at evening time it is light! 

The office of faith is to cling to the fact 
that behind all clouds, however thick, and 
all storms, however fierce, God is on the 
throne. It is the office of hope to look for 
the clearing of the clouds in God's good 
time. If we had no storms we should 
never appreciate the blue skies; the trials 
of the tempest are the preparation for the 
164 



LIGHT AT EVENING TIME 

afterglow of the sunshine. We ought 
never to think it strange that difficuUies 
confront us, or trials assail us; for this is 
but a part of our discipline, and in the end 
all things work for good to them whom 
God loveth and who trust Him. It is ac- 
cording to God's established economy that 
we should be exposed to temptations, and 
often to trials which threaten to drive us 
to despair. All this is to teach us our de- 
pendence upon Him. No climb of duty is 
so high, so steep, or so hard, but God is 
standing at the top! No honest work for 
Him is ever entirely in vain. I will go 
farther and affirm that no honest prayer 
was ever yet uttered in the right spirit, and 
failed to get some answer ; if not the thing 
asked for, yet some other good thing has 
been granted. And oh, how often God 
surprises us after a long day of struggles 
and discouragements by a glorious outburst 
of light at evening time ! 

There is hardly any passage in our Bible 
that is more full of encouragement to faith- 
ful ministers and teachers and parents, and 
165 



HELP AND GOOD CHEE'R 

to all who are toiling in Christian enter- 
prises than this very text that suggests this 
article. Things easily done are generally 
of small value ; it is the costly undertakings 
that counts. From the days of Bethlehem, 
Gethsemane and Calvary the history of the 
Christian Church has been: conflict before 
victory, labor before reward, shadow be- 
fore sunlight. When Europe had long been 
enshrouded in the "dark ages" Martin 
Luther seized the trumpet of the Saxon 
tongue and blew a blast that rang from 
Rome to the Orkneys. I well remember 
when my friend John G. Whittier was 
threatened with personal violence on ac- 
count of his advocacy of negro emancipa- 
tion; the grand old poet lived to sing the 
triumph of union and liberty. I could recall 
incidents in my own experience that illus- 
trate how, after dark days of discourage- 
ment, at evening time it was light. In my 
first pastoral charge of a small church, the 
discouragements were so great that I was 
under a strong temptation to abandon the 
difficult field of labor entirely. Suddenly 
i66 



LIGHT AT EVENING TIME 

there came the most remarkable outpour- 
ing of the Holy Spirit that I have ever 
witnessed during my whole ministry ! That 
revival was worth more to me than any 
year in the theological seminary. 

This beautiful passage of the bright even- 
tide is finely descriptive of a Christian old 
age. Some people have a pitiful dread of 
growing old, and count it a disgrace. They 
possibly think that if the line in their family 
Bible that records the day of their birth 
were subjected to the fashionable process 
of the ''higher criticism," it might prove 
to be erroneous ! But if life is spent in 
God's service its later years may be well 
described in the quaint Scotch version of the 
92d Psalm : 

And in old age when others fade, 
They fruit still forth shall bring; 
They shall be fat, and full of sap, 
And aye be flourishing. 

The October of life frequently yields its 
richest and ripest fruitage. The Rev. Dr. 
Richard S. Storrs delivered his most mag- 
nificent sermons and addresses after he had 
167 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

passed three-score. The most majestic 
and thrilHng burst of eloquence that ever 
flowed from Gladstone's lips was that ap- 
peal for bleeding Armenia, when his life- 
clock had already struck eighty-six! Why 
should not the Indian summers of a well- 
spent life show every leaf on the tree blaz- 
ing with ruddy gold? That noble old 
Christian philanthropist, William Wilber- 
force (who had suffered severe pecuniary 
losses), wrote in his diary, *T sometimes un- 
derstand why my life has been spared so 
long. It is to prove that I can be just as 
happy without my fortune as when I pos- 
sessed it. Sailors, it is said, when on a 
voyage at sea, drink to 'friends astern' 
until they get half away across, and then 
to 'friends ahead' for the rest of the voy- 
age. With me it has been friends ahead 
for many a year." Wilberforce was not 
the only veteran Christian who got glimpses 
of the friends ahead in the bright afterglow 
of life. 

If it is true that the old age of a faithful 
follower of Christ exhibits the light at even- 
i68 



LIGHT AT EVENING TIME 

tide, still more impressively does this often 
apply to his or her dying bed. During my 
active pastorate I sometimes get better ser- 
mons from my people than I ever gave to 
them. I recall now a most touching and 
sublime scene that I once witnessed in the 
death-chamber of a noble woman who had 
suffered for many months from an excru- 
ciating malady. The end was drawing 
near. She seemed to be catching a fore- 
gleam of the glory that awaited her. With 
tremulous tones she began to repeat Henry 
Lyte's matchless hymn, "Abide wdth me, 
fast falls the eventide." One line after 
another was feebly repeated until, with a 
rapturous sweetness, she exclaimed : 

Hold Thou Thy Cross before my closing eyes, 
Shine through the gloom and point me to the 

skies, 
Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain 

shadows flee, 
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me. 

As I came away from that room, which 
had been as the vestibule of heaven, I un- 
derstood how the "light at eventime" could 
169 



HELP AND GOOD CHEER 

be only a flashing forth of the overwhelm- 
ing glory that plays forever around the 
throne of God ! 



i:^ 



RECOLLECTIONS 
OF A LONG LIFE 

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 

BY 

Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D., LL.D. 

Crown 8vo, Illustrated, net, $1.50 

Dr. Cuyler is the only one living of the great 
Brooklyn pastors who, in the last half of the 
nineteenth century, were famous throughout the 
world. As a preacher, pastor and author his 
active life has brought him in contact with the 
most famous personages at home and abroad. 
His early life, his travels, his association wiih 
the great writers, statesmen, temperance work- 
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these men, and his account of his home life and 
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story. 

Dr. Cuyler*s religious books, including "God's 
Light on Dark Clouds," *' The Empty Crib," etc., 
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His style is full of vigor and life, while his keen 
wit and thorough appreciation of the humorous 
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greatest interest. It contains many anecdotes of 
famous persons which have not been printed 
before. 

The Baker & Taylor Co., Publishers 

33-37 East 17th St., Union Sq. North, New York 



THE NEXT GREAT 
AWAKENING 



By Rev. Josiah Strong, D.D. 

i2mo, cloth, 75 cents 

This work is especially addressed to the ministry of the 
world. Regardless of sect, it must interest thinking 
reLgious people everywhere. In it Dr. Strong works 
on this theme: 

There were great religious awakenings in the sixteenth, 
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each instance these great awakenings came in connec- 
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The beginning of the twentieth century naturally suggests 
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hundred years justifies the conclusion that the next great 
awakening will come when certain neglected scriptural 
truths, peculiarly adapted to the needs of our times, are 
faithfully proclaimed. These truths he points out. 

The Baker & Taylor Co., Publishers 

33-37 E. 17th Street, Union Square North, New York 



THE TIMES AND 
YOUNG MEN 

By Rev. Josiah Strong, D.D., 

Author of **Our Country" '^Religious Movements 

for Social Betterment" 

^^Twentieth-Century City" *'' Expansion" etc, 

i2mo, doth, net 75 cents 

Dr. Strong takes up the profound changes which have 
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already, together with established tendencies which are 
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in which we live. 

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if social ills are to cease, and enables the young man to 
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In short, the book is a brief and simple philosophy of life, 
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to see in the hands of their charges. 

The Baker & Taylor Co., Publishers 

33-37 E. 17th Street, Union Square North, New York 



BAKER & TAYLOR CO.'S PUBLICATION'S. 

THE CEEED OF PRESBYTERIANS. By Rev. 
Egbert Watson Smith, D.D. 12mo, cloth, 60 cents. 

The agitation of tLe revision of the Confession has turned 
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polemic for or against revision, but it is an attempt (as is no 
other one book) to answer ^he questions which laymen are 
continually asking as to just what the creed itself is, its char- 
acteristics, its history, and sanction. 

Its topics are "The Creed Formulated," ** The Creed Tested 
by Its Fruits," "The Creed Illustrated," and "The Creed's 
Catholicity." 

The writer treats his theme in a vitally interesting manner, 
and his book will interest not only Presbyterians, but their 
critics as well. 

*' The Rev. Dr. Wallace Radcliffe says of * The Creed of the 
Presbyterians,' by Dr. Egbert W. Smith: * It is an admirable 
book for general circulation. The author is a well-known 
minister of the Southern Presbyterian Church, and brings to 
his work a rare fitness in knowledge of and devotion to the 
creed of the Church. It is not a polemic. It does not bris- 
tle with the " Five Points." There are no war cries. It is in- 
tended as a popular presentation of the things most commonly 
believed among us. Tbey are announced in a fair, kindly, and 
catholic spirit, comprehensively, and in an attractive style. 
It should be in our Presbyterian households all over the land. 
Pastors will be safe and wise in commending it. The multitude 
have not time for the treatises. This compact, fair-minded, 
intelligent and clear presentation of our historic faith will 
answer many a question, bring peace and confirm devotion to 
our Church.' "—iVi3^/) York Observer. 

" An admirable book. Though brief, it covers many im- 
portant matters, and is highly to be commended. In particular 
are chapters 2 and 3 'The Creed Tested by its Fruits,' worthy 
of careful reading. "—Rev.William Henri/ Roberts, D.I).,LL.D., 
Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, 

Sent, postpaid, on receipt of the price, by 
THE BAKER AND TAYLOR COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, 
33-37 E. 17th St., Union Square North, New York. 



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- 1904 



SEP 9 1902 

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